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A 

HOLIDAY PRESENT; 

OB, 

EDUCATING LITTLE MARY 

FOR 

THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM. 



With JSumerous Engravings. 



" Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." — John ii. 5,. 
" But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not 
be taken away from her. " — Luke x. 42. 



ISy I>. IE*. NEWTON, 

Author of "Home Thrusts," "Shining Light," "The Swcrd that Cuts, 
the flrk that burns," and " apples of gold in pic- 
TURES of Silver. s 

* v Home's not merely four square walls, 

Though hung with pictures nicely gilded ; 
Home is where affection calls, 

Filled with shrines the heart hathbuilded." 



NEW YORK: 

Published by the Author, 303 West 20th Street. 

1871. 



Bfez 



3-MAR14 [ 

IPY ... 



M41 






3) J&D ICd r I OJV. 



« 



TO 

Our fceloved Brother Simeon Newton, and his little daughter Mary, 

This Volume is affectionately inscribed. 



" Make your home a little Eden ; 

Imitate her smiling bowers ; 
Let a neat and simple cottage, 

Stand among bright trees and flowers. 
There, what fragrance and what brightness, 

Will each blooming rose display ; 
Here a simple vine-clad arbor 

Brightens through each summer day. 

There each heart will rest contented, 

Seldom wishing far to roam ; 
Or, if roaming, still will cherish 

Memories of that pleasant home. 
t Such a home makes man the better — 

Pure and lasting its control : 
Home with pure and bright surroundings 

Leaves its impress on the soul. " 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71, by 

D. F. Newton, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



LONTENTS. 



Page 
Little Mary at her Morning Lesson. . . 5 

Serpents Coiled, etc 7 

Little Mary at her Morning Devotions 15 
Educating Little Mary, etc. No. 20... 21 

•Little Mary and Her Mother 24 

One Word to Little Mary. 29 

Educating Little Mary, etc. No. 21... 32 

The Beautiful Emily 36 

Educating Little Mary, etc. No. 22. . . 44 

An Illustration 51 

111 Gotten Gains 54 

Little Mary at her Morning Walk 61 

Charles Dickens 67 

Educating Little Maiy, etc. No. 23.. . 80 
No. 24... 85 

Charles Dickens., No. 3 90 

Prosy Sins 95 

End of Scoffers 98 

Little Mary and Aunty * 99 

Satan Casting out Satan 105 

Testimonials, No. 2 113 

Little Mary and her Father 118 

Testimonials. No. 3 124 

Testimonials Continued 130 

One Word to Students 136 

An Appeal to Students, No. 2 146 

Savor of Life unto Life, etc 152 

Educating Little Mary, etc., No. 31,.. 158 

Improvement, Practical Results, 1 172 

Improvement, etc., No. 2 177 

" " 3 180 

" " 4 187 

" " 5 190 

" " 6 J 94 

" 7 205 

" " 8 207 

" " 9 214 

Street School 215 

Toys for Children 218 

The Gamblers 220 

Dancing Mania 223 

Improvement, etc., No. 10 235 

" " " 11 239 

Sins of Thought, etc. 242 

Perversion of the Scriptures, No. 1 — 245 

" " " No. 2 248 

End of Scoffers. 250 

Where no Wood is 266 

Hindrances to Revivals 269 

Loving Little Folks, etc 272 



Page. 

Laugh at This, etc 279 

Cheerfulness 282 

Amusements and Recreations 286 

Searching the Scriptures 295 

Educating Little Mary, etc., No. 32.. .298 

The Old Testament, etc 303 

Tastes Differ 318 

Reading the Bible When ? etc 341 

Bible in Schools 346 

Closet Prayer, No. 1. 354 

" . " " 2 356 

Lightning Prayer 363 

Marriage Relation, No. 1 372 

. V " "2 .-372 

Singing to the Lord 378 

Always Young, Always Beautiful 381 

Fruits for Food. . > 393 

Work, Work, Work ! ; . 396 

Disciples on the Wing 398 

" All not Gold," etc 410 

Example Kills, Example Cures 421 

December. 426 

The Baby Jesus, No. 1 435 

" *' " " 2 440 

Loving Little Folks, No. 2 443 

Home Duties 452 

Home Work for Mothers 454 

The Mother's Duties 455 

The Dying Mother's Request 458 

The Dying Wife 466 

Pitying the Poor 469 

Girls Should Learn to Keep House. . .475 

Mothers and Daughters 478 

Little Folks Building, etc 483 

Loving Little Folks, No. 3 488 

Little One Sleeps 492 

More Little Folks 494 

Sister's Grave 497 

Beauties of Nature 500 

Spring-Time 501 

The Country 504 

Sowing Good Seed 506 

Lovely May 508 

The Birds and the Nests 509 

Don't Shoot the Birds 511 

Gathering Flowers 514 

Summer is Here 516 

Swift as a Deer 516 

The Dog Towser 5:9 

The Shining Light 522 



A HOLIDAY PRESENT; 

OR, 

Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom. 



Beloved in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Greeting : Thia 
second and third part of the book is a volume complete in itself, and 
is intended for a beautiful Holiday Present, a choice and valuable 
keepsake, a token of friendship, and love for all classes of persons, 
old and young, male and female, little and big. Friends of the 4 
Bible, of love, and gospel purity, will you pray the Lord to bless 
this effort of his feeble servant for good, for salvation ? In penning 
its pages he felt a sweet consciousness of God's smiling approval, day 
in, and day out. Therefore a lively hope springs up spontaneously, 
that he will send it forth and make it a lasting blessing to the rising 
age, to parents and children, teachers and pupils, to the Church of 
Christ, and to institutions of learning and piety. 

" For right is right, since God is God ; 
And right the day must iviji ; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 

Four Volumes in One. 
In addition to the original matter inserted in this new volume for husbands and 
wives, parents and children, teachers and pupils, editors and ministers, we give also (in 
a condensed form) the cream or essence of four volumes, " Home Thrusts," " Shining 
Light," " The Sword that Cuts, the Fire that Burns," and "Apples of Gold in Pictures 
of Silver." 

" We can never be too careful 

What the seed our hands shall sow ; 
Love from love is sure to ripen, 

Hate from hate is sure to grow. 
Seeds of good or ill we scatter 

Heedlessly along our way ; 
But a glad or grievous fruitage 
Waits us at the harvest-day. 
Whatsoe'er our sowing be, 
Reaping, we its fruit must see." 

The work contains 540 pages neatly executed, beautifully illus- 
trated with more than one hundred engravings. 

Price per Copy, in beautiful Cloth, $1.50; with gilt, $3.00; 
Postage, 30 Cents. AGENTS SOLICITED. 

Address D. F. NEWTON, 

303 West 20th Street, N. Y. 




Little Mary at lier Morning Lesson. 

" Let the little ones come unto me, 
In that beautiful place lie has gone to prepare 

For all who are washed and forgiven ; 
And many dear children will be gathered there, 

For of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

Who is this little Mary spoken of so freely and fre- 
quently in these pages ? Who is she — where is she ? 
She is an only child of beloved parents, a dear little 
one ; a sweet, smiling, beautiful girl of some four 
years, whom the Lord, we trust, will raise up to be a 
bright and shining light; an angel of mercy, an 
example of all that is pure, virtuous, heavenly ; like 
the Mary who sat at Jesus' feet and heard his words, 
and who poured the precious ointment on bis head 
as he sat at meat, and of whom the Saviour said : 
" One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that 

5 



6 LITTLE MARY AT HER MORNING LESSON. 

good part which shall not be taken from her." Luke 
x. 4, 2.* 

" When Mary chose the better part, 

She meekly sat at Jesus' feet ; 
And Lydia's gently-opened heart 

Was made for God's own temple meet. 
Fairest and best adorned is she, 
Whose clothing is humility. " 

" If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of 
God." u Every word of God is pure." 

" This Book,* these sentences, these lines, 
Each word and letter, 
To us f are better 
Than chains of pearl and golden mines. 

" 'Tis heaven transcribed and glory penned ; 
God's truth, no doubt, 
Was copied out, 
When He this gift to men did send." 



* In speaking of the various hindrances or obstacles in the way of 
educating little Mary for the heavenly glory, we come now to the 
nineteenth obstruction — to one of the greatest and most fearful in 
her pathway to life eternal, namely, Serpents Coiled — Snakes in the 
grass, concealed — more to be dreaded and shunned than the fiery 
serpents that bit the Israelites in the wilderness. Num. xxi. 6. This 
one momentous idea is the burden of our pen, occupying the entire 
second part of this new book. 

* The Bible. f The Author. 



SERPENTS COI LED. 




Educating little Mary for tlie Heiivenly Kingdom.-No. 19. 

" Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the LORD 
God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of 
every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the 
fruit of the trees of the garden : But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the 
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And 
the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." — Gen. iii. i, 2, 3. 

Beloved brother and sister, here is a lie in the 
beginning — barefaced, heaven-daring, from the father 
of lies, the old serpent, the devil. And this same lying 
from this same father of all lies, and of all liars, has 
been going on increasingly to the present day, especi- 
ally in books, tracts, and periodicals. 

" How shall I speak thee, or thy power address, 
Thou god of idolatry, the Press ! 
Like Eden's dread probationary Tree — 
Knowledge of good and evil is from thee !" 

And here lies danger, impending, fearful, in educating 
this dear, sweet one, concerning whom God says: 
" Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will 
give thee thy wages." Ex. ii. 9. 

" There is a path that leads to God, 
All others go astray." 

7 



8 SERPENTS COILED. 

You may not only hinder little Mary's salvation, 
but endanger it forever, by not forming her reading 
and mental taste on the side of virtuous purity, the 
heavenly, spiritual, the wisdom that cometh from 
above. Here is danger, fearful, imminent — often 
irretrievable, everlasting! Beware! The taste for 
strong drink, the cup that intoxicates, the poisonous, 
degrading " Indian weed," you are aware is unnatu- 
ral, vicious, obstinate, deeply rooted, and nothing 
will effectually destroy the relish for these poisons but 
miraculous or super-abounding grace — God's infinite 
mercy. So it is with the reading or mental taste — a 
taste formed for the light, frivolous, fictitious and 
vicious! The forming of this unnatural and vicious 
taste, in both these cases, is the work of satan, the old 
serpent, the devil, to decoy, entrap, and fuin both 
soul and body. It is a question, yet unsolved, whether 
the enemy of all good succeeds in taking more souls to 
perdition through the instrumentality of rum and to- 
bacco, or that of the light, frothy, popular literature — 
novels and romances. Both are intoxicating, dissipat- 
ing, soul ruinous ! 

Mrs. Swisshelm, in her Saturday Visitor, declared 
unhesitatingly that the whole batch of fashion-plate Ma- 
gazines, and other fictitious writings, spread more do- 
mestic misery and destruction over the human race 
than all the rum-sellers in the nation. " Yes," says 
she, " they instigate more murders than the tyranical 
bloody Nero !" The beloved Judson, and sister Vin- 
ton, Missionaries to Burinah, expressed similar sen- 



SERPENTS COILED. 9 

timents, weepingly. The viciated taste, formed 
through the corrupting influences of the press, the 
relish for Bible reading, the solid and the pure are 
measurably destroyed. Here lies the serpent coiled, 
or in the grass, unseen. 

Place a serpent or stinging adder in the hands of 
this daughter of yours % — Sooner, far, than a sensation 
book or periodical ! The bite of a serpent may be 
healed, but that of a literary serpent never — save 
by God's special interference. 

For thirty years and more we have besought 
parents, tearfully, not to form the tastes of their child- 
ren on romance or the ficticious. " Can a man take 
fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned ?" 
"Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out." Prov. 
xxvi. 20. * How is the taste acquired for intoxicating 
drinks ? Look at that wretched inebriate reeling 
through the streets or in the gutter, with tattered gar- 
ments, haggard looks, blood-shotten eyes, red nose and 
bloated cheeks, in the lowest depths of misery and de- 
gradation. How came he there? What the first 
moving cause of his downfall ? Did he commence tip- 
pling with drugged liquors at the low groggeries or de- 
vil's dens — the little hells, boiling over with the scum 
of the pit, where nightly ring horrid oaths and blas- 
phemies ? Not so ; the starting-point to this sink-hole 
of moral pollution, this hot-bed of debauch, and these 
bacchanalian excesses was at the genteel restaurant, 
the gay saloon, the fashionable hotel, where polished 
gentlemen assemble, clad in fine broad cloths, with 



10 SEEPENTS COILED. 

ruffled shirts, gold-headed canes, gold breast-pins, gold 
watch-chains, keys £nd seals, dangling ; where stand 
the sparkling decanters of delicious cordials, tempting 
wines, dealt out in golden goblets, placed to the lips 
in vessels of silver and vessels of gold. Here is where 
drunkards are manufactured — take the first step to the 
gutter and the brothel. " Who hath woe ? Who 
hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath 
babblings ? Who hath wounds without cause ? Who 
hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the 
wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not 
thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his 
color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At this 
last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine 
heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be 
as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he 
that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken 
me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick : they have 
beaten me, and I felt it not : when shall I awake ? 1 
will seek it yet again." Prov. xxiii. 29-35. 

Precisely so in forming the taste for romance — for 
fictions — 

" The coxcomb's novel, 
And the drunkard's toast." 

My dear brother and sister w r ould be shocked, hor- 
rified, stand aghast at the idea of placing the " Mys- 
teries of Paris," a corrupt Bulwer, or a licentious Eu- 
gene Sue in the hands of this sweet, lovely daughter, 
called Mary ! Sooner, by far, you would place a 



SERPENTS COILED. 11 

stinging viper in her bosom ! And yet, what do you? 
Something worse or more dangerous — select a 
romance, a novel from " Harper," " Godey," u Peter- 
son," " Demorest," Beecher, Dickens and other writers 
of sentimental fiction, written in a style beautiful, 
fascinating % — that contains fine sentiments, elevating 
and purifying, highly commendable ; strains of 
ardent piety, correct portraits of living ministers ; 
but, mark, they present the rose without the thorns — 
the brimming cup of pleasure without the dregs of 
bitterness. They present pictures, scenes, and situa- 
tions of another and pleasanter life than that which 
ordinary mortals enjoy. By transporting one into a 
paradise of pleasure, it creates a distaste for real life, thus 
unfitting one for the hard matter-of-fact, work-a-day 
world in which God has placed man for his probation. 

These works of fiction become popular by being re- 
commended and patronized by ministers of the Gospel, 
advertised and puffed by religions editors. These sen- 
sation books and periodicals may not contain anything 
vulgar, coarse or gross. Better if they did. Evil that 
comes in the form of grossness or vulgarity, is not so 
dangerous as that which comes veiled in gracefulness 
and exquisite sentiment. Subjects which are better 
not touched upon at all, are discussed, examined, and 
exhibited in all the most seductive forms of imagery. 
Parents would be shocked to see a son in a fit of in- 
toxication ; and yet, we solemnly aver, it would be 
better to see a son reel through the streets, in a fit of 
drunkenness, than to see the delicacy of a lovely 



12 SERPENTS COILED. 

daughter's mind injured, and her imagination in- 
flamed with false fire ! Twenty-four hours will termi- 
nate the evil in the one case, but twenty-four years 
will not exhaust the effects of the other. You must 
seek the consequences at the end of very many years. 
"Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth." 
" Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are 
the issues of life." Prov. iv. 23. 

The first step in a downward course should be shun- 
ned as a deadly serpent ! None become abandoned at 
once : we cannot have too clear an idea of the danger 
of the " first steps" in any sinful career. Those whose 
business and profession it is to ruin men, well under- 
stand this dangei*. What kindly allurements and ten- 
der cords of enticement do they use at first to decoy 
the unsuspecting and unwary young men ! The most 
unsuspected traps and snares have at first been laid, 
until thousands of interesting youths of both sexes 
have been led on, hardly aware at first that they were 
in the ruinous course, until they have fallen, drawing 
others along with them into the lowest vortexes of in- 
famy. And so it is always bidding us beware of the 
first steps in sin. So Bunyan's path over the stile, or 
that leading into by-meadows, lay apparently almost 
straight along the Pilgrim's true road. 

" The course of evil 
Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, 
An infant's hand might stop th,e breach with clay ; 
But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy, 
Aye, and religion too, shall strive in vain 
To turn the headlong current !" 



SERPENTS COILED. 13 

Nor should those parents and others, whose business 
and profession it is to educate mind, and train undying 
spirits for virtue and heaven, be less conscious of the 
influence of " first steps," whether in vice or virtue. 
Guard these with unsleeping vigilance. Among the 
pernicious activities of our time, is the prolific produc- 
tion of novels and romances. These are of every 
grade of mischief in their competition, but they have, 
to a large extent, a property in common, namely, the 
policy of artful disguise. The debasing tendency is 
not only veiled, but many times greatly enhanced by 
the arts of rhetoric, and an elaborate and polished 
diction. 

Parents and teachers seem not to know, that the 
thirst for novel-reading is cultivated by novel-reading ; 
or they seem not to know that reading fiction, with a 
little sprinkling of religion, prepares children to love 
to read fiction, though it may have a sprinkling of 
irreligion. 

There is that in the character of fictitious writings, 
properly called novels, whether the subject be secular 
or religious, which forms a taste different from histori- 
cal, didactic, or any of the other classes of writing, 
and this taste is as readily formed by holding the child 
upon religious novels in his younger years, as if he 
were supplied with secular novels. 

By our religious machinery the child is piously 
trained to seek his gratifications of mind amid elements 
of grossest corruption. If the enemy of all good should 
set himself to devise a scheme to take children out of 



14 SERPENTS COILED. 

religions families, and from them to rear a supply of 
victims of this form of ruin, he could, with all his cun- 
ning, hardly contrive a better way to avoid giving 
alarm and to secure the result. " Stolen waters are 
sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasent. But he 
knowe'th not the dead are there ; and that her guests 
are in the depths of hell." Prov. ix. 17, 18. 

In the Sabbath school library, and in the books pur- 
chased for children, we furnish them with the means 
of cultivating a taste for novel-reading, and so prepare 
them greedily to devour whatever fictitious trash may 
fall in their way, and then waste our breath in deplor- 
ing their exposure to a corrupt literature. 

Our Sabbath-school libraries, and our families, and 
our book stores, are full of these introductions to the 
" Mysteries of Paris." 

• ' How great their charge who feed the mind, 
And, with a high and Heaven-taught spirit, strive 
To neutralize the poison that corrodes 
Its health, and with an appetite for truth 
Replace the gilded titles that impair 
Its nerve and firmness. " 




Iiittle Mary at her Morning Devotions. 

*' Let your first thoughts by morning light 
Ascend to God on high ; 
And in the evening raise your thoughts 
Above the starry sky.'* 

Little Mary pray ? Go to the Lord for guidance, 
wisdom and grace? Supplicate, a throne of mercy in 
faith, in the name of Jesus, for herself and for others? 

Assuredly, morning, noon and at even tide ; sooner 
would she dispense with her regular meals — breakfast, 
dinner and supper. See her at it at early dawn, ere 
the sun streaks the east. 

" Wake while yet the sparkling dewdrops 
Gem each flower's tiny bell ; 
Kneel with calm and thankful spirit — 
Kneel and breathe thy morning prayer." 
15 



16 LITTLE MARY AT HER MORNING DEVOTIONS. 

Are not little folks just as needy, just as dependent as 
the big folks are? Do not they need help from above, 
the smiles of heavenly grace, strength to do this, and 
to do that, equally with persons in advanced life ? 
And is not God just as ready to bow the listening ear 
to the littlest of the little as he is to the bigest of the 
big, if so be they come with penitent hearts, humbly 
confessing their sins, meanwhile looking to the Lamb 
slain, the blood of sprinkling, the Lord Jesus ; the 
only name under heaven given among men " whereby 
we must be saved?"" Acts iv. 12. The Lord turn 
away little Christians because they are little ? When ? 
Where ? Write it not — speak it not ! Heaven and 
earth pass away sooner ! Children, dear — 

" He loves to hear your infant prayers ; 
He bids you seek his face : 
Go, like the children of His love, 
And ask His promised grace." 

To be sure there are some children who tell us they 
pray, or rather say prayers, who are crooked in their 
paths, stiff-necked, rebellious, do despite to the Word 
of Grace. We frequently put the question to some 
little boys and girls : " Do you pray to the Lord ?" 
" To he sure we do." " How," we inquire again, " in 
what way ?" " Now I lay me down to sleep ;" " Our 
Father, who art in Heaven," etc. All this may be 
and no Christ in it ; no repentance, faith, hope, soul- 
kindling ; no hungerings or thirstings after righteous- 
ness; no disposition to obey God — walk in newness 
of life. These very children, who tell us they pray so 



LITTLE MARY AT HER MORNING DEVOTIONS. 17 

and so, make no scruple whatever in saying wrong 
things and in doing wrong things. They are proud, 
impatient, fretful, self-willed, disobedient to their par- 
ents, play truant, run about in the street school, tell 
lies, call harsh names. Are not the prayers of such 
little folks parrot-like, lip-service merely ? This awful, 
dilapidated state of things reminds us of the wicked, 
hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, of whom Christ 
said: "This people draweth nigh to me with their 
mouths, and honoreth me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from me." Matth. xv. 8. The Psalmist 
said : " If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will 
not hear me." Then he says : " I will wash my hands in 
innocency, so will I compass thine altar, Lord." We 
see clearly, now, what little folks must do, and what 
big folks, likewise, must do, to obtain a hearing, find 
free and sweet access to the mercy-seat, viz., putting 
away all sin through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

" To say my prayers is not to pray, 
Unless I mean the things I say, * 
Unless I think to whom I speak, 
And with my heart His favor seek. 

" In prayer we speak to God above ; 
We seek the blessed Saviour's love ; 
We ask for pardon for our sin, 
And grace to make us pure within. 

" My infant lips were early taught 
To say, * Our Father,' as I ought ; 
And every morn and every night, 
To use my daily prayer is right." 




THE HOUSE-TOP : OK, THE ANCIENT MODE OF HOUSE- 
BUILDING. 

The roof is flat, often covered over with solid earth, or a 
kind of plaster made of coals, ashes, stones, and other sub- 
stances pounded together. On these roofs a little grass 
grows and shrubbery ; but these soon wither under the 
heat of the sun. Psalm cxxix. 6-8. 

The roofs of these houses have always been much used 
as places of pleasant retirement, where any one, little folks 
or great folks, can, if they choose, retire to read, meditate, 
and pray — pour out their souls in prayer to God for theni- 
selves and for others. On the tops of these houses it is 
common to walk in the evening, enjoy its cool breezes, and 
there, in summer, persons often sleep under the broad arch 
of heaven. On such a roof, Rahab concealed the spies 
with stalks of flax. Josh. ii. 0. Samuel talked with Saul. 

18 



THE HOUSE-TOP. 



19 



1 Sam. ix. 25. David walked at eventide. 2 Sam. xi. 2. 
And Peter employed himself in meditation and prayer. 
Acts, x. 9. 

No matter where we pray, in the closet, on the house- 
tops, in the forest, under the shady oak or sycamore-tree, 
by the sea-side, or on the high mountain, if so be we pray, 
and pray earnestly in faith, lifting up holy hands, watch- 
ing thereto with all perseverance. 

A closet for prayer we must have, and pray we must in 
the spirit. The moment we cease to pray and watch we 
are gone ! gone ! lost ! lost ! 

Peter, on a certain occasion, went up on the house-top to 
"pray ;~and what a blessed time he had ! 

Sisters, mothers, sons and daughters, old and young, flee 
to the closet — have your regular stated seasons, adhere to 
them strictly, undeviatingly. Let no earthly care deprive 
you of these. Closet prayer is especially enjoined by 
Christ. " When thou prayest enter into thy closet," etc. 
See Matt. vi. 5. Our Saviour himself retired frequently to 
the mountain-top, 'spent whole nights in secret devotion. 
The most devoted men and women on earth, in all ages, 
the most active, useful, consistently holy ones, have made 
the closet a special resort, the stronghold of faith. 

The Saviour uses the word closet to mean any place 
where, with no embarrassment either from the fear or pride 
of observation, we can freely pour out our hearts in prayer 
to God. No matter what ara the dimensions of the place, 
what its flooring or canopy. Christ's closet was a moun- 
tain ; Isaac's, a field ; Peter's, the house-top. 

" 'Tis prayer supports the soul that seeks, 

Though thought be broken, language lame ; 
Pray if thou canst, or canst not speak — 
But pray in faith in Jesus' name." 




MOSQUE OF DAVID. 



Mosque of David, so called ; but now a Mohamme- 
dan place of worship. 

In viewing this structure we are . reminded of the 
sweet singer of Israel, who poured out his soul to God 
in strains angelic ! So full of holy fire was David, he 
often rose at midnight to give thanks, meditate on 
God's word, sing hallelujahs — glory, glory ! He would 
s&y, " Oh, how love I thy law ; it is my meditation all 
the day." 

Here lies the secret of all prayer, the gift of prayer, 
the spirit of prayer, the prayer of faith, energizing, 
soul-kindling, soul-saving prayer, that mounts to the 
third heavens as on eag 's wings ! Why was David so 
remarkably gifted in prayer? David's prayers were 
dictated by the Holy Spirit. 



20 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— -No. 20. 



11 There is a way which seemeth right unto a 7)ici)i ; but the e?id thereof are the 
ways of death.'''' 

" Far off, the road which leads to death 
Looks beautiful and fair ; 
Lord, seek Thy servants if they stray, 
Nor let us perish there." 

Beloved, it's the religious novel, the mixed pub- 
lications, containing the bitter and the sweet, the 
honey, the wormwood and the gall — partly good and 
partly evil, partly Christ and partly Belial, that work 
mischief, " defile the whole body, and set on fire the 
course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell." James 
iii. 6. " Doth a fountain send forth at the same place 
sweet water and bitter ? Can the fig tree, my breth- 
ren, bear olive berries ? either a vine figs ? so can no 
fountain both yield salt water and fresh." James iii. 
11, 12. 

These popular works of fiction, sprinkled here, 
sprinkled there, with fine moral sentiments, things 
lovely and of good report, in a style facinating and 
beautiful, and with imagery the most seductive, are 
the snakes in the grass, the serpents that bite, the 
adders that sting, sugar-coated poisons, the sparkling 
decanters, the mixed wines, the golden goblets — -wine 
that is red " when it giveth his color in the cup, when 
it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a 
serpent and stingeth like an adder." Pro v. xxiii. 31, 32. 

The great danger lies in the concealment. The ser- 



22 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

pents are coiled unseen, 'till the poisonous, forked 
tongue darts forth — or if seen, in comely form, in the 
garb of pleasure, with fair face and flattering lips. 

" And underneath her eyelids sat a kind 
Of witching sorcery ; that nearer drew, 
Whoever with unguarded look, beheld ; 
And seeming free of all disguise ; her song 
Enchanting ; and her words which sweetly dropped, 
As honey from the comb, most large of promise 
Still prophecying days of new delight 
And rapturous nights, of undecaying joy, 
And in her hand, where'er she went, she held 
A radiant cup, that seemed of nectar full, 
And by her side danc'd fair delusive hope. 
The fool pursued, enamored, * * " 

What caps the climax of high-handed, God-defying 
iniguity is thesa satanic transformations — these cocka- 
trices eggs, which, if a man eat thereof, he dieth, 
these inlets or initiatory steps to the vilest French 
novels, the most corrupting, wanton and lascivious 
readings, are set in motion, pushed into public favor, 
into families, Sunday-schools and circulating libraries 
by the religious press, by men and women called dis- 
ciples of the Lord Jesus! Was Christ ever wounded 
more deeply in the house of his friends ? Could Diab- 
olous himself desire agents more efficient — more to his 
liking ? This helping satan to do his dirty work has 
been going on in the editorial department and in the 
pulpit from time immemorial, and will go on. " For 
this mystery of iniquity doth already work : only lie 
who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the 
way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 23 

the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, 
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." 
2d Thess. ii. 7, 8. " A wonderful and horrible thing is 
committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, 
and the priests bear rule by their means, and my 
people love to have it so ; and what will ye do in the 
end thereof? " Jer v. 30-31. 

" I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran ; I 
have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But 
if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my 
people to hear my words, then they should have turned 
them from their evil way, and from the evil of their 
doings." Jer. xxiii. 21-22. 

' ' How far may we go in sin — 
How long will God forbear ? 
Where does hope end, and where begin 
The confines of despair ? 

1 ■ An answer from the skies is sent : 
Ye that from God depart, 
While it is called to-day repent, 
And harden not your heart. " 




Iiittlc Mary and her Mother. 

" Art thou a mother? Then to thee are given 
Gems weighing more than all the stars of even ; 
Guard thou the treasure with a sleepless eye, 
The Master watches from his throne on high. 
Fear thou no suffering, count no toil a cross, 
To lose thy jewels is eternal loss." 

But what is tins dear mother doing, talking about, 
reading about? Something good, beautiful, heavenly, 
glorious! Pertaining to the kingdom above — hope 
eternal, life everlasting! How Jesus, the Lord of 
heaven and earth, came all the way from the excellent 
glory to suffer — die on the cross, ascend up far above 

24 



LITTLE MARY AND HER MOTHER. 25 

all heavens! And for what? to save whom — sinners? 
Yes ; little sinners and big sinners, even the blood- 
guilty, scarlet-colored ! 

Is this the purport of the mother of tins same little 
Mary on the present occasion, the burden of her in- 
most soul ? Who questions it for a moment ? 

You perceive, likewise, that this precious little one 
is not indifferent or listless when heavenly wisdom is 
imparted; every ear is open, every eye attentive. 
Every syllable, every lisp from her mother is listened 
to with deep, heartfelt, marked, careful, prayerful at- 
tention. This fact speaks volumes in favor of this 
pious mother's heavenly inculcations from the earliest 
dawnings of moral and intellectual accountability. 
Doubtless she began, as Hannah with her little Samuel 
in olden time, the dedication process, ere this child saw 
the light of opening day — while in embryo formation, 
while being " curiously wrought in the lower parts of 
the earth." Psalm cxxxix. 15. And this dedication 
and entire consecration of soul and body has been 
going on day in and day out till the present, perse- 
veringly — imploring, meanwhile, heaven's choicest 
smiling benediction to accompany every means of 
grace. Is not this God's order set forth beautifully 
and glowingly, from Genesis to Revelations ? This is 
precisely what we mean by educating little Mary for 
the heavenly — what God means when he says, in 
Ephesians vi. 4, u Bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord." Bring up what — whom? 
Little ones? Certainly; the littlest of the little. Why 



26 I/ITTLE MARY AND HER MOTHER. 

not? What hinders? Who dares? Some quite in- 
telligent and pious mothers tell us they can't talk to their 
children on the subjectof religion. They can talk fluently 
and persuasively on every other topic, common- place — 
things of the " earth — earthy." But when it comes to 
soul work, life work, salvation work — things moment- 
ous as eternity, high as heaven, deep as hell, lips are 
closed, silence profound reigns, all is hush as the 
grave. 

What meaneth this ? what does it indicate ? u A 
name to live while dead ? " Awful ! heart-rendingly ! 
What must angels think and say? God himself? 
Bleeding Mercy ? 

Mothers, is it so with you? can it be? Fathers, 
how with you ? What ! rise up, lie down, go out, come 
in, sit around the fire-side, the table spread with heav- 
en's bounties, day in day out, w x eek in week ont, month 
in month out, read novels, chit-chat, gabble nonsense 
and laugh at nonsense, eat, drink, make merry, and 
the dear ones God has given you to train for heaven 
and heaven's glories are sleeping the sleep of death in 
your midst, on the road to perdition endless as fast as 
time can carry them. Nothing, indeed, but the brittle 
thread of a moment keeps them out of hell ! — the 
burning flames of the pit bottomless! 

Surely, devils themselves, doomed already, wonder 
with deep amazement, stand aghast at this unaccount- 
able, awful stupidity, this unheard 'of spiritual blind- 
ness ! Wake! wake! ye sleepers; wake up ere 
heaven's t7mnde?$olts, the flashings of Sinai, judgments 



LITTLE MARY AND HER MOTHER. 27 

terrible, stare you full in the face, causing every ear 
to tingle ! * 

Beloved reader, in glancing these pages, think 
not we mean you, unless the coat fits. Of you we hope 
better things by far — things that make for peace — 
though we thus speak : 

"Watch o'er thy child, 
Keep back no goodly thing." 

And to you, mothers, especially, we say : 

" The mother, in her office, holds the key 
Of the soul : and she it is who stamps the coin 
Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage, 
But for her gentle cares, a Christian man. 
Then, crown her Queen o'er the world." 



* If your house was on fire, and your little ones on the eve of 
perishing in the flames, what the out-cry? — "Fire ! fire ! fire ! " 

How think you? Were the godly mothers of Moses, little Samuel, 
John the Baptist and of Timothy, silent on the question of Salva- 
tion, even when their little ones were tottering in baby-garments, 
ere the dear appellation of "pa" and "ma" were uttered? 

THE WORTH OF SOULS. 

" Who hath measured? who hath weighed them? 
Or their priceless value told ! 
Far above Golconda's treasures, 
Or the choicest mines of gold." 




THE MOTHER'S FIRST BORN. 

"Lids like snow-flakes, dropped above ; 
Eyes like summer blossom ; 
Lips a rosebud, made for love ; 
'Dimpled cheek and bosom." 

Mother, what will you do with this sweet little God- 
send ? Take it to Jesus now ? " Too little," say you ? 
No, it aint ; now's the time — the precious, all-important. 
The very moment a child opens its eyes, beholds the 
spangled heavens, hears nature's voice, its character is 
forming for time, for eternity : every thought, look, word, 
smile, or frown goes to fill up. Is the atmosphere pure 
and holy, it inhales it ; is it corrupt, morally contaminated 
it breathes it, drinks it in. Every inch of time at this 
early period is invaluable. The habits are forming foi 
realms of light and glory, or woe interminable, infinite 
A child's time is more precious than gold ; every momenl 
should be made to count — it will count, avoid it you can 
not. As soon stay the revolving moon or hush the roaring 
bellowing tide. Educate your child, or Satan will. 

28 



One Word to Little Mary in Passing, about the Good Shepherd 
of the Sheep and of the Lambs. 

" Jesus loves a little child ; 
He was lowly, meek, and mild." 

How sweet it is, dear Mary, to be a little one, whom 
Jesus loves; and how happy you would be to know 
his love and prize it ! Your heart would leap for joy, 
and your lips would open wide in his praise. How 
happy a thing it would be if every little one were a 
lamb of the great and good Shepherd! And why 
should it not be so ? Each one is invited to come to 
Jesus. If you would be happy, come to this great and 
loving Shepherd, who carries the lambs in his arms. 
Seek now your Saviour in the days of your childhood 
you will then be happy for life and prepared for death. 
This would not be the mere delight of the moment as 
your pleasures now are ; it would be eternal happiness, 
eternal joy. 

Will you not come to the good Shepherd ? He loves 
the lambs as well as the sheep of his flock. He is the 
door as well as the Shepherd. Hear what he says : " I 
am the door of the sheep ; by me if any man enter in, 
he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pas- 
ture." Blessed Jesus, draw the little ones to thyself! 

Dear little niece, can you not say with the poet : 

" Jesus from heaven came down to die 
For little children young as I ; 
So great his love, his life he gave, 
29 Our guilty souls from hell to save. 



30 ONE WORD TO LITTLE MARY IN PASSING. 

" Oh, may I love and praise his name, 
Who once for me a child became : 
Help me, O Lord, thy will to do ; 
My sins forgive, my heart renew." 

"He w T ill feed his flock like a shepherd; he will 
gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his 
bosom." 

It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, 
that one of these little ones should perish. The good 
shepherd watches over his flock by day and by night, 
and if a single lamb wanders from the fold into by- 
paths or quagmires, he is off, off instantly, in search of 
the lost one. Nor does he rest till it is safely in the 
fold — the bosom of love. 

" Feed my lamhs? 

How great the love of the good Shepherd for the 
sheep ! Not only a life of toil, but a cruel death bears 
witness to his love. When about to ascend, to a chosen 
apostle he addressed the question, " Lovest thou me ? " 
Then to an affirmative answer responds, " Feed my 
sheep ;" thus showing that the work of the preacher 
was a work of love, and that the great and controlling 
motive-power in this work, w T aslove to the Master. It 
was this that prompted the early disciples to endure 
great hardships and privations, and enabled them to 
rejoice that they were suffering for Christ's sake. 

14 Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." 

" The Shepherd sought his sheep, 
The Father sought his child ; 
They follow'd me o'er vale and hill, 
O'er deserts waste and wild." 




HAPPY? THE LITTLEST AJSTD THE BIGGEST? 



Who doubts it ? Look at them, little readers, is there 
a single jar of discord here, the least frown of discontent 
exhibited on the face of one of these children ? Does not 
each one wear a glowing smile of cheerfulness ? What 
makes them happy — the love of Jesus in the soul, ruling 



and reigning ? 



" Love is the little golden clasp 
That bindeth up the trust ; 
Oh, break it not ;, lest all the leaves 
Shall scatter and be lost." 

31 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 21, 



" He who sins, like him who slides on ice, 
Goes swiftly down the slippery ways of vice ; 
Though conscience check him, yet, these rubs gone o'er, 
He slides on smoothly, and looks back no more." 

AN INCIDENT A SERPENT COILED ! 

Here is a beautiful volume, issued by the " Ameri- 
can Tract Society," highly eulogized by the " Family 
Guardian," and by how many other religious peri- 
odicals we know not. 

The author of this new publication is a father ad- 
dressing his daughter on the subject of female deport- 
ment in society, her pursuits and prospects of life, 
the dangers to which young women are exposed, the 
gay party, the ball-room, theatre, reading, &c. The 
author denounces with great severity a certain class of 
novels that are read merely " to kill time." " But 
fiction," he says, " is admissible in a young woman's 
course of reading, for some of the finest moral senti- 
ments may be inculcated under this garb ! " 

Here is a serpent coiled in the centre of this beautiful 
book, sent forth by Christian publishers and teachers. 
What for — to save life or to destroy it ? 

Where will this young lady, inexperienced as she 
must be of Satan's devices, direct her steps for fiction 
so highly commended by a father and the teachers in 
Israel ? There is no loss for fiction, go where you will. 
The very atmosphere we inhale is permeated withfalse- 

32 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 33 

hood and false fire, more fatal than the simoon of 
Arabia or the deadly Upas ! 

These fascinating popular weeklies and monthlies 
are flooding the land, darkening the heavens like the 
flies, frogs, lice and locusts of Egypt, but far more 
dangerous. They "go up and come into thine house, 
and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into 
tho house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and 
into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs." 

There are book stores, not a few, in every city, 
crammed with fiction from top to bottom, and with 
nothing but fiction. And where will you find a reli- 
gious or theological book establishment that has not 
more or less in it of fiction, that ought to be bonfired — 
committed to the flames ? Into what Sunday-school 
book store or Sunday-school library are not found fiction, 
heaps on heaps, that should be consigned to the pit 
bottomless, where it originated ! 

Here is a publishing house bearing the insignia of 
"Holiness to the Lord," advertising and proclaiming 
to the world " The doctrine of the higher Christian 
walks," " Perfect love," " Entire sanctification." What 
for — the public weal? Here is fiction enough in this 
one house to poison soul and body of the whole com- 
munity — little folks and big folks ! Awful ! What, 
now, in this instance — a bonfire ? The Lord speed it, 
though the price of these literary serpents cost more 
than "fifty thousand pieces of silver." Acts xix. 19. 
Would not angels rejoice over this burning ? 

" Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth ; for the 



34 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

faithful fail from among the children of men." " If 
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous 
do?" Psalm xi. 3. "By whom shall Jacob arise?" 
" Who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? or 
who will stand up for me against the workers of ini- 
quity ? " 

Then our mail-bags are loaded with fiction, groaning, 
being burdened ! From day to day cart loads upon 
cart loads are sent forth from our General Post-office, 
day in and day out, of cursed fiction, to curse the 
rising age — the whole w r orld ! Moreover, cast your 
eyes on the numerous book and paper stands on nearly 
every street in our large cities — w^hat do you see? 
any thing but fiction^ of every grade, from the highest 
to the lowest, from the religious, the sentimental, down 
to the sensual, the devilish, the soul-polluting ! 

H. C. Dana, Esq., in a recent lecture, utters forth 
fully and nobly the warning voice. " It is a sad sight," 
says he, "to examine the display of sin, crime and 
moral corruption that is made in every news depot 
throughout the land. They are all crowded with the 
most immoral and even obscene pictures. There is 
not a crime or sin that is not cleverly represented there 
in picture, and fully described in print. Not a man, 
woman or child can pass along our streets without see- 
ing them. And thus children are made familiar with 
sin and crime before they even know what they mean. 
Men of all classes buy them to take home, thought- 
lessly carrying the serpent of ruin into the family. 
There is nothing so deadly to morality as immoral pic- 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 35 

tures, and we arc surrounded by them. Young ladies 
stand and gaze into news depots' windows at those pic- 
tures without even a blush. It is so fearfully common 
that we have ceased to think of it. Our sense of 
modesty is dead. We are blind, and unless we get our 
eyes open soon we shall become sadly dead to shame. 
We have educated ourselves down to the notion that 
licentiousness is not much of an evil after all, if not 
exposed. The man who is known to be vile in all his 
life is admitted to the best circles of society if he have 
plenty of money or political position? . The cry is, 
they are all about alike ; but that is false in regard to 
both sexes. But we have educated ourselves down un- 
til we have lost much faith in everything good. Mar- 
riage has been stripped of its sanctity, and above it 
has been raised the horrible temple of divorce. This 
great evil, this moral vampire, has sucked the life-blood 
of marriage, and left it under dark clouds, and it is fast 
sinking in its death-throes. Men and women unite 
under its most sacred bonds with the thoughtlessness 
of trade. Divorce will cure all mistakes, they say, 
and so rush, blindly along towards sin, crime and ruin. 
Those are some of the causes, and the Christian world 
lias a mighty responsibility resting upon it, that it sees 
that those causes are corrected and removed. Let no 
one hesitate because this is unpleasant work; we are 
not to ask whether God's work is pleasant or un- 
pleasant, we are to do our duty, and leave all conse- 
quences with Him." 




The Beautiful Emily. 

' On that cheek and o'er that brow, 

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, 
The 6miles that win, the tints that glow, 

But tell of days in goodness spent ; 
A mind at peace with all below, 
A heart whose love is innocent.' 



What is the beautiful and pious Emily reading? A 
novel? Not yet ; her taste is not formed for the light 
and vicious ; Dickens, Beecher, Harper, Godey, Peter- 
son, Arthur Leslie, " Our Young Folks," " The Little 
Corporal,"* and other sickly, sentimentals, have not 

* Parents, do you wish your little ones to be simpletons, weak, 
puerile, foolish, vain, selfish, self-righteous, proud, hypocritical, 
time-serving Scribes and Pharisees — mere gigglers, fond of fun and 
frolic — vulgar merriment, on the road to perdition ? Well, then, 
place in their hands this catch-penny "lullaby-baby, on the tree- 
top," simpering and silly publication, called "The Little Corporal," 
puffed to the skies by nearly every religious paper in the land, not 
excepting the "Guardian" and "Guide to Holiness!'' Awful! 
Readers, beloved, what are we coming to ? But more of this by- 
and-by. 36 



THE BEAUTIFUL EMILY. 37 

fallen- under her notice. (God grant they never may.) 
Sooner than these, instructions or stepping-stones to 
the most vile and impure, we would p^ace in the hands 
of a dear, virtuous youth, the writings of Tom Payne, 
Hume, Voltaire, " The Mysteries of Paris," a vile li- 
centious Bulwer. Wherefore? These latter authors 
are the roaring lion devils, from which a son or a 
daughter, yet uncontaminated by vicious reading and 
vicious associations, would flee as from an alaconda ! 
— a deadly serpent, with forked tongue and eyes of 
fire ! While the former are sugared pills, satan's 
transformations, serpents concealed ! 

" Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
That, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
But seen too oft, familiar with its face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

But, to return to the u Incident," page 32. This 
neat volume, issued by the American Tract Society, 
commended highly by the u Female Guardian," and 
other religious periodicals. The father of this sweet 
girl, the author of the book, tells his child she may 
read fiction, but leaves her in the dark. He says no- 
thing of what fiction. Will he choose for her ? Will 
the publishers at the American Tract Society office? 
the editress of the " Family Guardian ? " Or is she 
permitted to choose for herself? 

" Unto the pure all things are pure : bat unto them 
that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure ; but 
€ven their mind and conscience is defiled." Titus i. 15. 



38 THE BEAUTIFUL EMILY. 

« Dreadful is their state of blindness, 

Pestilential is their breath — 
Let us march to give them freedom, 

Th? pure light of day to see — 
Not with any carnal weapons ; 

'Tis the Truth shall set them free ! " 

Life is too short, too precious, its interests are too 
important, its claims are too pressing to allow those 
who are entering its arena to lose themselves in ideal 
labyrinths, or to chase imaginary air bubbles with im- 
punity. There is too much truth to be known, too 
many all-important and intensely-interesting facts 
waiting to be learned, too many departments of knowl- 
edge beckoning the young mind to enter and possess 
their contents, for him to spend time in following the 
fortunes of Spoony Spriggs, a runaway jack-a-napes, 
or in finding out who married Julia Jellyflower, the 
red-haired flirt ; and truths of the most important 
character, of life, science, art, geography, history, 
ethics, and religion, can be set forth in a style that 
will- interest while it instructs, and will be even more 
fascinating to young minds than the sensational 
stories and sugar-coated nonsense now placed in their 
hands. 

Children should be encouraged to read works written 
for their seniors. Youths of ten or twelve years old 
would get far more help and intellectual health and 
vigor from reading histories, biographies, books of 
travel, art, and even of sciences, than almost any ju- 
venile w T orks. But the Bible first, midst, last, always. 



THE BEAUTIFUL EMILY. 39 

" The Bible — book of wondrous love, 
Borne from God's eternal throne 
In mercy's arms to fallen man, 
To tell the mission of the Son."' 

Parents, clear, is it not time to bestir ourselves ? Will 
you allow us to say kindly, lovingly, that you cannot 
keep your koines too pure ? If the young heart is not 
educated to love purity, it will love sin and follow after 
it ; and if you crowd your libraries with fiction, and 
pervert your own lives by its perusal, how can you ex- 
pect to lead your children heavenward ? 

The young gain more education from novels to-day 
than from the sciences. They pore over the unchaste 
pages, and shed fountains of tears over some luckless 
heroine that never lived, and whose counterpart never 
will live; but they have no sympathy for the sorrows 
of a beggared widow or orphan, and their hearts are 
unmoved at the sight of actual human suffering. 

Can it be that those to whom God has given ten 
talents, will waste them all in wrecking humanity ? 
Shall they be willing, for dollars and cents, to send 
young souls, reeling beneath a burden of shame, into 
penitentiaries, dance-houses, and groggeries? Will it 
pay at the bar of God ? 

When we look for a moment at the mass of fictitious 
reading that is flung out broadcast over the world, can 
we wonder that the young so early wander away in 
the paths of vice, or that the vile dens in our cities, 
that are seething in impurity, are peopled with wrecked 
manhood and fallen womanhood ? We look in aston- 



40 THE BEAUTIFUL EMILY. 

ishment at tlie evidences of blighted intellects, lost 
virtue, and ruined lives : and yet how many of these 
learned their first lesson in vice at home or at school, 
over the pages of fiction. 

u And whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" Gal. vi. 7. 

" We are sowing, we are sowing, 
In eternity to reap ; 
Day by day are harvests growing 
For us, after death's long sleep." 

Once induce the people to take the Bible ; the old, 
the young, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, make 
it the man of their council, their guide, their lamp, 
their light, their exceeding great reward ; embrace it, 
clasp it to their bosoms as their chief delight — the 
world is saved — "blossoms as the rose." 

This is the secret of all secrets, the only hope of a 
world's salvation. Departing from this blessed book 
has been the downfall, the ruin, in all ages. 

" The Bible — grand and heavenly chart, 
On which is traced the narrow road, 
Which leads the pilgrim traveler, 
Up to the realms of bliss — to God." 

It is the Bible we inculcate ; it is the Bible we are 
laboring to place on the throne of every heart. It's 
the Bible for the parents, it's the Bible for the child- 
ren, it's the Bible for the sinners, it's the Bible for the 
saints. 

It is the Bible, the blessed Bible ; now, henceforth, 
and forever. 




IMPAETING INSTKUCTION EBOM THE 
BIBLE. 

" Oh ! liow glorious and precious, 
And * exceeding great' indeed ! 
Truly did their bounteous giver 
Know and feel our utmost need." 

That's right, parent, you are taking a wise course, 
laying a sure foundation. Train your sons and 
your daughters on the Bible, impart light and life 

4t 



42 THE STIINING LIGHT. i 

from the sacred Scriptures ; begin early — follow it 
up day by day, as God directs in Deut. vi. 6-10, 
and they will be " olive plants around your table" — 
trees planted by rivers of water, that bring forth 
fruit in their season. 

Young friends, how thankful you should be that 
God, in infinite mercy, hath blessed you with a 
kind, pious father, who says to you, as Solomon 
said to his son : " My son, forget not my law, but 
let thine heart keep my commandments ; for length 
of days and long life and peace shall they add to 
thee." Prov. ii. 1-3. Praise God for the Bible — ■ 
do you? and God who gave it? It is above all 
price. 

" Legacy supremely richer 

Than the richest kings bestow, 
Honored is indeed the being 
Who doth e'er their fulness know." 

And why, think you, we thus dwell upon it, turn 
it over and over, view it on every side, repeat and 
re-repeat, beseech you, in the name of the Lord, 
to take it as the man of your counsel, your all in 
all, your hope, your joy, your life ? Do you not 
know, dear youth, why we thus give line upon line, 
precept on precept — exhaust all the powers of our 
being, to gain your thoughts to this blessed volume ? 
It is because the subject is one of infinite moment — 
your present and eternal welfare depends on the 
manner you treat this choice gift of heaven. 

Happy or safe, without the Bible in your heart, 
in your life ? Happy without God ? If you love 




THE BIBLE FAMILY; OB, A FAMILY OF 
THE BIBLE. 

Here they are, Bible in hand and Bible in the 
heart, little folks and great folks. 

It is Bible, Bible, Bible — Bible in the morning, 
Bible at noon, and Bible at even -tide. 



43 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 22. 



" Be thou gentle, be thou kind, 

To snatch each noxious weed that springs 
To choke the tiny Infant things." 

" I want a paper that has long stories in it," said a 
young lady ; and she added, " I don't want a paper for 
anything else." Poor girl ! much to be pitied — and a 
pitiful appearance she will make through life — and 
what in death ? She wants nothing serious, no acquaint- 
ance with the history of her times, nothing intel- 
lectual, soul-saving; nothing but newspaper novels! 
Empty heads they must be, that can~find room every 
week for some ten columns of a sham story. Yet 
these are the heads for which the weekly press toils and 
groans, throwing off by the ten thousand its sheets of 
shallow, insipid, and disgusting fiction : and for this 
an amount of money is paid which a sound literature 
utterly fails to command. Yes, Christian fathers and 
mothers buy this vile trash for their sons and daugh- 
ters, and so minister to their ignorance and destitution 
of all taste and fitness for life's duties. Doubtless the 
periodical press does more than any other one instru- 
mentality to decide the opinions, habits of thought, and 
general character of the age. A family will very soon 
begin to show a sympathy with its weekly or monthly 
paper, and parent and child will soon begin assimilating 
to it in sentiment and feeling ; and as families are, so is the 

"44 



EDUCATING LITTLE MAHY. 45 

community at large. Blind and stupid therefore — yea, 
worse — are those parents who tolerate in their houses 
a class of papers which are good for nothing, then 
bad — made up of the writings of silly, ignorant scrib- 
blers, who would be " at the foot " in the town school 
of good morals. Such are the teachers of half the 
present generation. 

We frequently put the question to these book and 
paper dealers by the way side, " Why do you not keep 
for sale something good and useful, that will edify, 
administer grace to the readers and hearers ? " The 
reply is almost invariably, " We can't sell good books 
and papers, truly evangelical ; even church members 
select a novel, a 'romance, or a love-story in prefer- 
ence." The plea, furthermore, for scattering this vile 
trash, is that of the rum and tobacco dealer — those 
who traffic in poisons — liquid death and distilled dam- 
nation ! " We must live — have our bread and butter, 
kill or no kill ; and if we do not sell these things 
(that is, kill folks — poison them to death) some body 
else will." So it goes ; satan rules — licentious infi- 
delity stalks in open day ! 

Thus : 

" Crimes in every shape increase, 

Judgments stalk throughout the land ; 
Signs are borne on every breeze, 
That destruction is at hand." 

" But while w r e note the growing demoralization of 
the stage, and the increased allurements to evil which 
it presents, it nevertheless has this in its favor — that 
it obtrudes its disgusting representations upon none. 



46 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

Shut up within the walls of a theatre, licentiousness 
can be suggested to those only w 7 ho voluntarily subject 
themselves to its exhibitions. Another evil, however, 
has obtruded itself upon society, which admits not 
even of this poor palliation. The outbreak of inde- 
cency upon the stage has been followed by the inva- 
sion of literature, and the promoters of licentiousness 
have stepped beyond their hitherto limited sphere, and 
are using the press — especially the pictorial press — 
for the diffusion of impurity." 

This new enemy does not wait to be sought out ; it 
refuses to be avoided. It meets us on the street-cars, 
in the boats, is before us and stares at the passer-by 
from every news-stall, around which groups of young 
men and boys may hourly be seen, eagerly feasting 
their fancies on scenes of debauchery. We may keep 
our children from the theatre, and so train them that 
they shall never desire to frequent it ; but there is now 
an educator presented within their reach which soon 
may undermine all the home lessons of purity, and, by 
easy steps, lead them to perdition. 

The teachings of our schools and our churches must 
be to a great extent in vain while these wretched pan- 
derers to depravity are undoing the work of the school 
and the church. One such periodical may do more 
evil than many pulpits can correct. If this raid of 
license remains unchecked, preaching, teaching, and 
warning will be alike in vain. 

The demoralizing tendency of a large part of the 
issues of the press is positive and wide-spread. The 



EDUCATING LITTLE MAItY. 47 

brains of authors and writers are taxed to their utmost 
to write and re-write tales of the most extravagant and 
startling description, to meet the popular taste. Cross- 
eyed and fevered visions are invoked, the hellish in- 
spiration of the intoxicating beverage is called into 
play, to furnish sensation stories, and tragic tales of 
love, seduction, desertion, suicide, and death — murders, 
elopements, assignations, and crimes of damning hue 
— all written to order to "sell*' the sheet, and to " sell" 
the purchaser. 

The tale being written, immense placards decorate 
the walls of the city, illustrated with pictures of 
assasinations, or desperate leaps from mountain cliffs, 
or midnight plunges into the sea, while the pale moon 
looks down on the saddening spectacle. And the eye 
and heart of the young, as they pass along the. street, 
are educated into familiarity with the base and sensual 
passions of the vicious, the abandoned, and the lost. 
The reading of these exciting and "thrilling" tales 
follows, and the serpent winds, his snare around the 
heart, which loses not its hold until thousands are 
swept into the damning pool whence so few return to 
the atmosphere of purity or of hope. 

But what is fiction or the fictitious? Falsehood! 
A lie, bare-faced ! What else ? Take Webster's defin- 
ition, if you please. No matter whether it is a black 
lie or a white lie. There are lies of wantonness, 
cruelty, lies of first, second, and third-rate malignity. 
"The false pen of the Scribes worketh for falsehood." 
Jer. viii. 8. 



48 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

" He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my 
house : he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." 
Psalm ci. 7. "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak 
every man truth with his neighbor." Eph. iv; 25. 
Who first originated falsehood or fiction ? And what 
the cost to our first parents for believing a lie from the 
father of lies? What said our blessed Lord to the ly- 
ing, hypocritical, time-serving Scribes and Pharisees ? 
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your 
father ye will do ; he was a murderer from the begin- 
ning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no 
truth in him. When, he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his 
own : for he is a liar, and the father of it." John viii. 44. 
. Then the doom of those who continue to tell lies — 
what is it? What saith the Lord? "All liars shall 
have their part in the lake that burnetii with fire and 
brimstone — this is the second death." 

And is there not truth enough in all the world, 
aside from holy revelation, on which to nourish our 
little ones, mentally and spiritually, without feeding 
them on lies, the food of satan ? Then, in addition 
thereto, the fountain of all light, glowingly beautiful, 
majestic, glorious, is spread before us, shining ever- 
more, brighter than the noon-day sun — food on which 
angels feed. Praise the Lord for truth more precious 
than rubies. : evermore give us this bread. LTpon our 
tables, there it lies — the golden Bible true. 

" Happy the soul that reads the page 
That guides our youth and cheers our age ; 
Yea, blessed evermore is he, 
O Lord, who learns to come to thee." 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 49 

Let once the spirit of this blessed Book of books take 
full possession of the hearts of our children, and these 
lies of satan find no lodgment. One great reason why 
we have so many liars, deceivers, and false accusers in 
the world is, children acquire the habit of telling lies 
from the example of those around them. Some people 
tell lies to children with a view of enjoying a laugh at 
their credulity. This is to make a mock at sin, and 
they are fools who do it. TB% tendency in a child to 
believe whatever it is told, is of God for good. It is 
lovely. It seems a shadow of primeval innocence 
glancing by. Touch it only with truth. Be not the 
first to quench that lovely truthfulness by falsehoods. 

Lying is the first step or next door to thieving. No 
one becomes a thief at once. The beginning is small, 
but unless checked the work goes surely on till great 
crimes are committed. 

" A little theft, a small deceit, 
Too often leads to more ; 
'Tis hard at first, but tempts th&feet 
As through an open door. 

" Just as the broadest rivers run 
From small and distant springs, 
The greatest crimes that men have done, 
Have grown from little things/ ' 

Satan was the first author of novels, and his follow- 
ers have been quite successful in carrying out the prin- 
ciples of his school. It was he who first addressed the 
imagination and passions of Eve in the garden of Para- 
dise ; and was it not a deceptive and unfounded tale, 
that " brought death into our world, and all our woe." 




THE LITTLE THIEF CAUGHT IN THE ACT- 



" Theft will not be always hidden, 
Though we fancy none ean spy; 
When Ave take a thing forbidden, 
God beholds it with his eye." 

50 



An Illustration. 



11 What if cowards fear and tremble, 
Or dishonest men dissemble ; 
\iyou know your duty, do it, — 
Choose the right and then pursue it." 



Instance, by way of illustration, the author of 
" Norwood," who ran eagerly after the error of Ba- 
laam for reward ; the son of Bosor, who loved the 
Wages of unrighteousness, and was rebuked for his 
iniquity; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, 
forbade the madness of the prophet. Pet. ii. 15-16. 
After, the author of this novel, entitled "Norwood," 
having received the wages of unrighteousness or "sop," 
what and who entered into him ? See John xxiii. 26-27 ; 
also, Luke xxii. 3. 

Satan's ways are moveable ; lest thou ponder the 
path of life, thou canst not know them. " Can one go 
on hot coals and his feet not be burned ? " Pro v. vi. 28. 

After having received a bribe — a large sum of money, 
or the " sop," this popular divine allows this novel of 
his to be published, in a weekly, devoted chiefly to 
novels that pamper the already corrupted tastes of 
both the old and the vouncr ! Then, with his clerical 
robes still wrapped around him, he allows it to be 
dramatized and acted in the principal theatres of the 
country, thus lending his great influence to aid the 
work of soul destruction, w T hile he still claims to be a 

51 



52 AN ILLUSTRATION. 

minister of the Lord Jesus Christ ! And then, to cap 
the climax of this absurdity and wickedness, the book 
is advertised for pay, and offered as a premium for 
subscribers, by some of the principal religious papers 
of the country ! 

What a curse to the rising age ! What numbers 
have formed a vitiated taste from this one work of fic- 
tion ! The rush to scenes of worldly pleasure, billiard 
saloons, the ball-room, the theatre and opera-house, 
from that time to this, has increased four-fold! The 
steps of very many of these, will, doubtless, go down 
to death ! — " take hold on hell ! " Truly, " one sinner 
destroyeth much good." 

What said Peter to Simon the sorcerer? " Thy 
money perish with thee." 

Are not the sins of this man going before him tc 
judgment ? For how much did Judas betray his Mas- 
ter, and afterwards committed suicide? 



i > 



*' When a weak Judas, tortured by the rack 
Of conscience, till his life was made a hell, 
Rushed madly to the temple and flung back 

The bribe which tempted him his Lord to sell." 

If satan can find a Judas among the true disciples 
of Jesus, a Simon Magus, a Hymeneus, an Alex- 
ander the coppersmith, a damsel possessing the spirit 
of divination, or some wolf in sheep's clothing, he is 
sure to make a tool of him or of her. 

A man's religious connections should be a part of 
himself — not like a harness, which you can take off 
from the horse, and lay aside for a while, and then put 



AN ILLUSTRATION. 53 

on again when you wish to ; but like a man's lungs, 
which you can't take out of the man but he dies. 

There is nothing which hurts the moral tone of the 
mind more than doing things which go against our 
conscience, even in immaterial matters. 

Whenever we see a professed Christian taking plea- 
sure in sin, we cannot help fearing he may be a de- 
ceived soul ; because the Scriptures expressly teach us, 
" If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature." 

" But," says one, " my conscience don't accuse me." 
Very likely, friend ; a conscience burnt out by serving 
the devil, sinning against light and knowledge, resist- 
ing the Holy Spirit, year in and year out is not likely 
to operate very powerfully on such a calloused soul, or 
on oii£ given up to hardness of heart or judicial blind- 
ness. On such an one the most solemn and awful 
truths leave no awakening or salutary impression. 

A conscience defiled by ill-gotten gains, the love of 
filthy lucre, light, frothy readings, is a very unsafe 
guide, and is well nigh unto burning ! 

" Trifle not ; for from the fulness 

Of the heart the mouth doth speak, 
And from clear and rock-bound fountains 
Never will foul waters break." 




Ill-gotten Gains. 

11 He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them." Ps. xxxix. 6. 
" The covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth" Ps. x. 3. 

" Do not shut sweet mercy's doors 

When sorrow pleads or want implores." 

See this picture, "beloved ! It tells the whole story 
in a few words. 

The love of money surely " is the root of all evil." 
What a temptation, what a snare of Satan ! How 
many fall into it ! Judas, in the outset, had not the 
faintest idea of betraying his Master for thirty pieces 

54 



ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. 00 

of silver, nor even for $30,000. But after the " sop "— 
what now? Satan? John xii. 20-27. Mark his 
avariciousness henceforth. When the sweet, lovely 
Mary, whose soul was alive, and absorbed in love to 
Jesus, poured the costly and precious ointment on his 
head as he sat at meat, what saith the money -loving 
Judas, the traitor? " Why was not this ointment sold 
for three hundred pence, and given to the poor ? This 
he said, not that he cared for the poor : but because 
he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was 
put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone, against 
the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the 
poor always ye have w T ith you : but me ye have not 
always." John xii. 5, 6, 7, 8. 

Take, the rich fool in the Gospel, who resolved to pull 
down his barns and build greater, wherein he could 
bestow his fruits and goods, that he might take his 
" ease, eat, drink and be merry." " But God said unto 
him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
thee : then whose shall those things be which thou hast 
provided ? So is he that layeth up treasure for him- 
self, and is not rich towards God." Luke xii. 20-21. 

Instance the time-serving, popular-seeking, covetous 
Scribes and Pharisees, who shut up the kingdom of 
heaven against men, wdio would neither go in them- 
selves nor suffer them that avere entering to go in ; to 
whom the Saviour said : " Wo unto you, Scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites ; for ye devour widows' houses, 
and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye 
shall receive greater damnation. Wo unto you, Scribes 



56 ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. 

and Pharisees, hypocrites ; for ye compass sea and 
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye 
make him two-fold more the child of hell than your- 
selves." Matt, xxiii. 14-15. 

" What, preach and kidnap men ! 
Give thanks, and rob thine own afflicted poor — 
Talk of Christ's glorious libeety, and then 

Bolt hard the captive's door ! " 

Alas, who will not Satan dupe next? 

" Heed not the tempter's syren voice, 
A deep with dangers rife ; 
Mortal ! thou hast a better choice, 
Life, life eternal life. ' ' 

The good Bishop Simpson and the venerable Dr. 
Tyng, of noted celebrity and goodness, came within a 
hair's breadth of falling into this same trap of Satan, 
or of receiving the " sop." Their names, with some 
other distinguished divines, were heralded through the 
land as contributors to this novel-sheet — the u New 
York Ledger." But their eyes were opened to see the 
serpent coiled ! the cloven foot ! in due time. 

What now? Resist the devil — without receiving 
the " sop ? " To be sure they did, saying, " Get thee 
behind me, Satan." 

" O man of God, flee these things." 

Who in his right mind (Toes not see and know that 
this writing, publishing, puffing, selling, and reading 
these works of fiction, whether religious or otherwise, 
is diabolism from first to last, the entering wedge to 
rascality, every thing villainous — " earthly, sensual, 



ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. 57 

devilish ?" And yet this same diabolism will go on in- 
creasingly till judgments come — and come they will. 
u For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, 
who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Horn. i. 18. 
" Who has not reviewed the past few years with fear — 
and who can look forward without forebodings ? Can 
you look at this age, and see the great mass of mind 
moved, agitated, and troubled, without fearing that 
shortly the agonized cry of nations forsaken by God, 
will rend the heavens ? — The foundation of society al- 
ready shakes, and nothing but the rising up of genera- 
tions, who, from their very cradles, shall have the fear 
of God planted in their hearts, can anchor this, or 
any other nation, so that there shall not be a shipwreck 
of hopes." 

" Oh that our God would raise up men 
Whose hearts, unmoved by popular siu, 
Could bear reproach, and grief, and pain, 

In serving God ; 
Not pride nor wealth their heart could sway, • 
Not learned nor great should hedge their way, 
They could not fear the face of day, 

But fear their God." 

We see clearly how a man's true character may be 
known by his writing as«^ell as by his preaching. A 
man richly imbued with heavenly wisdom, and a soul 
on lire for the salvation of perishing souls, with the 
solemnities of eternity in view, will never stoop to the 
mean, low, devilish business of writing novels for 
u Ledgers " and theatres, though mountains of gold 



58 ILL-GOTTEN GAINS. 

were laid at liis feet. lie would say, as our blessed 
Lord said to the devil, on a similar occasion — " Get 
thee hence, Satan," &c. 

" Gold banished honor from the mind, 
And only left the name behind ! 
Gold sowed the world with every ill : 
Gold taught the murderer's sword to kill ! 

'Twas Gold instructed coward hearts 
In treachery's most pernicious arts : 
Who can recount the mischiefs o'er ? 
Virtue resides on earth no more ! " 

WHAT DEVILS WILL NOT DO. 

Talk about virtue, purity of thought and life, de- 
claim against prostitution, illicit intercourse, mean- 
time scatter the very dregs of moral pollution all 
through the land, entering-wedges to every species of 
vice, dissipation, and prostitution, causing Satan him- 
self to blush ! 

A SAD MISTAKE, ONE OF THE SADDEST. 

" When the false pastor from his fainting flock 
Withholds the bread of life, the Gospel news, 
To give them dainty words, lest he should shock 

The fragile fabric of the paying pews, 
Who must but feel the man, fo grace unknown, 
Has kissed — not Calvary — but the Blarney-stone. " 








BELSHAZZAK li- FEAST. 



MOCKING FOLKS— FOLKS THAT MOCK. 

The feast of the impious Belshazzar, during which 
he saw the fingers of a man's hand writing upon the 
plaster of the wall, and his knees smote one against 
the other. Ban. v. 1-6. 

Was this wicked, idolatrous Belshazzar the only 
mocker, think you, reader? We tell you, nay. The 
world is full of them. Ministers mock God. on a 
thoughtless tongue ; parents mock God ; little children 
mock God. 

Look at those children that mocked Elijah, saying, 
" Go up, thou baldhead." And what became of them ? 
God sent " two she-bears out of the wood, and tare 
forty and two of them." 2 Kings, ii. 23. 

Ministers mock God when they confer with flesh and 

59 



60 THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 

blood, keep back part of the price, bow to the popular 
ear. Parents mock God when they solicit prayers for 
their unconverted children, meanwhile permitting these 
ungodly sons and daughters of theirs to continue in the 
service of Satan, live as they " list." What is it but 
mockery, or playing the hypocrite, to solicit the prayers 
of God's people while clinging to any idol, any known 
sin, while we have no fixed purpose of coming out from 
the world, and " presenting our bodies,, a living sacri- 
fice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable 
service ?" Beware, friends, lest your " bands be made 
strong." David says, " If I regard iniquity in my 
heart, God will not hear me." Again he says, " I will 
wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine 
altar, O Lord, that I may publish with the voice of 
thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wonderful works." 
Psalm xxvi. 6. 

How many useless prayers! How much prayer, 
adled prayer, that is not praj^er ! 

" The lips may utter holy words, 

And tremble with the form of prayer ; 
May charm the ear like singing birds, 
And seem an angel's praise to share. 

" And yet, unless a life of love, 

Which fain would bless the world, be ours, 
In vain we lift our hearts above, 

Though worshipping in Eden bowers ! 

" Our life, our love, give soul to prayer, 
Faith wings it to the mercy-seat, 
Wins it divine acceptance there, 
And pours heaven's treasures at our feet" 




Iiittle Mary at lier Morning Walk. 

" ' 'Mid J 'nuts and flowers — the singing of birds."" 

Beautiful ! What more ? 

The lark is up to meet the sun, 

The bee is on the wing ; 
The ant his labor has begun, 

And groves with music ring. 

The morning air adds brightness to the blood, 
freshness to life, and vigor to the whole frame. " The 
freshness of the lip is one of the surest signs of health." 
Would you be well, enjoy health, life, vigor of soul 
and body? have your heart dance joyfully like the 
April breeze, and your blood flowing like an April 
brook? Up with the lark ! inhale the pure sweetness 
of early dawn ! 

J 61 



62 LITTLE MAHY AT HER MORNING WALK. 

" Wake while yet the sparkling dew-drops 

Gem each flowret's tiny bell — 
With the joyous woodland warblers, 

Loud their grateful chorus swell — 
Kneel with calm and thankful spirit, 

Kneel and breathe thy morning prayer." 

See, morever, little " Trip ' is keeping sweet Mary 
company ; taking the lead friskingly. 

Rise early! Up betimes? Who questions it? Sleep? 
dozes away the precious golden season — the prime ot 
day — when all nature is alive, and on the wing — the 
merry songsters, — the tuneful lark, the blue bird and 
robbin red breast. Wake, wake ! — wake up, little 
sleepers — up and on your knees ere the sun streaks the 
east! 

" Wake ! for behold the rising light 
Of morning gilds the sky ! 
Its glories call for thankful songs, 
For action, prompt and high." 

Prayer is called for — searching the Scriptures — the 
first thing. All the most eminently distinguished for 
elevated piety and usefulness have been early risers. 
The Lord Jesus, our great Exemplar, not only spent 
whole nights in prayer, but, also, " in the morning, 
rising up a great while before day, he went out, and 
departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." See 
Mark i. 25, and no doubt that this was his frequent 
custom. Mark, too, those who first visited the tomb 
of our blessed Lord. Who were they ? what the hour 
of this visitatation ? before the dawn, " while it was 
yet dark." Their souls were kindled, lighted up in 
a flame most holy. 



LITTLE MARY AT HER MORNING WALK. (3 

Think of that other dear Mary — sweet as heaven 
could make her-— the sprinkling of blood most pre- 
cious ! How early did she visit the sepulchre of her 
risen Saviour? Turn to Matthew xxiii., Luke xxiv. 1. 

Wake up ! rise up and see 

The dew-bespangled herb and tree ; 

Each flower has wept, and bows toward the east 

Above an hour since, yet thou art not drest — 
Nay, not so much as out of bed, 
When all the birds have matins said, 

And sung their thankful hymns : 'tis sin — 

Nay, profanation — to keep in, 

When as a thousand virgins on this day 
Kise sooner than the lark to fetch in May. 

But stop ! what has little Mary in her hand % beau- 
tiful flowers ! Who would wish to live without flow- 
ers ? "Where would the poet fly for his images of 
beauty if they w 7 ere to perish forever ? Are they not 
the emblems of loveliness and innocence, the living 
types of all that is pleasing and graceful ? We com- 
pare young lips to the rose, and the white brow to the 
radiant lily ; the winning eye gathers its glow from 
the violet, and a sweet voice is like a breeze kissing 
its way through the flowers. We hang delicate blos- 
soms on the silken ringlets of the young bride, and 
strew her path with the fragrant bells when she leaves 
the church. We place them around the marble face 
of the dead in their narrow coffin, and they become 
symbols of our affection, pleasures remembered, and 
hopes faded, wishes flown, and scenes cherished, the 
more, that they can never return. Still we look to far- 



64 LITTLE MARY AT HER MORNING WALK. 

off scenes, to spring in other valleys, to the eternal 
summer beyond the grave, where the flowers that have 
faded shall again bloom in starry fields, where no rude 
winter can intrude. 

Our world might be made to bring forth nothing 
but briers and weeds, thorns and thistles; "but beauty 
and fragrance are poured abroad over the earth in blos- 
soms of endless varieties, radiant evidences of the 
boundless beneficence of Deity." Man, agreeably, to 
the promise, might have had " seed-time and harvest, 
day and night, summer and winter," and yet no flow- 
ers ; . for these were never promised, but the former 
were. They were lovely companions of our first 
parents in Paradise. 

" God might have made the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, 
Like to the oak and cedar-tree, 
Without a flower at all." 

But they were created to gladden the heart of man, 
cheer his lonely hours, afford him lessons of wisdom 
and instruction, give him beautiful and convincing 
proofs of the great Creator, and afford him perpetual 
themes for joyful admiration. 

The flowers, how sweet, how beautiful they are ! the 
cheering smiles of earth, and the lovely harbingers of 
spring, proclaiming the hand that made them Divine? 
How gracefully the blue-bells nod in that silent wood 
among the moss-grown rocks ! The little anemone 
spreads its snow-white petals to catch the falling dew, 
while the tall primrose balms the evening air. How 



LITTLE MARY AT HEK MORNING WALK. G5 

rich those yellow cowslips appear in the flowery mea- 
dow among the blue violets, while 

11 lied o'er the hills the roses bloom — 
The lilies in the vale." 

Such are flowers wherever we find them. They tell 
us that God is what he is. They speak of his wisdom, 
power, gentleness, and goodness. But 

How can little children's hearts 

Bring forth flowers of love, 
Unless Christ, the Lord, imparts 

Sunshine from above ? 



ANGELS SLEEP? NEVER. 

How can I sleep while angels sing, 

While all the saints on high 
Shout " Glory to our God and King, 

The Lamb that once did die : " 
While guardian angels fill the room, 

And hov'ring round my bed, 
Do clap their wings in love to Him 

Who is my glorious head. 

Such blissful spirits never sleep, 

Their love is ever knew ; 
Then O, my soul, no longer cease 

To love and praise Him too. 
For I, of all the race that fell, 

Or all the heaven-born host, 
Have greatest cause, with humblest soul, 

To love and praise Him most. 




WHAT AKE THESE LITTLE FOLKS DOING? 

Gathering May flowers ? Busy— did you ever see folks 
busier ? So busy, indeed, they have hardly time to think, 
speak, look this way or that way. And yet, you see, they 
do, once in a while, cast an eye to mother, and listen to 
what she says. That's right, children, always obey youi 
mother. 

" Never stand in idleness, 
In a world like ours ; 
Looking on while others toil, 
Heedless of tlvy powers." 

C6 



Charles Dickens. 



What is lie ? where is he ? What his life ? what his 
death ? Though dead, he yet speaketh. How ? for 
good or for evil ? for life or for death ? Will the world 
rise up and call him blessed? "By their fruits ye 
shall know them." 

Does not every man leave behind him, on bidding 
adieu to earthly things, a blessing or a curse? 

"A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, 
bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man, out of 
the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things." — Matt, 
xii. 35. 

The man, on earth, devoted to the skies, will in 
glory continue to speak for God here below while time 
remains. 

" Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before 
to judgment; and some men, they follow after. Like- 
wise also the good w^orks of some are manifest before- 
hand ; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." — 
1 Tim. v. 24-25. 

The examples of good men, though dead, will speak, 
be " had in everlasting remembrance." Is this all ? 
Nay, the books, tracts, and periodicals of a pure and 
reformatory tendency left behind will preach salvation 
to very many, while he is praising God, singing halle- 
lujahs around the throne eternal! "They rest from 
their labors, and their w T orks do follow them." 

67 



68 CHARLES DICKENS. 

Reader, which kind of preaching will you choose to 
preach when the silver cord shall be loosed, or the 
golden bowl be broken ; when your dust returns to the 
earth as it was, and your spirit returns to God who 
gave it ? Do not very many persons leave Satan be- 
hind them in bound volumes to poison the souls of the 
rising age ? Thus the iniquity of the fathers is visited 
upon the children to the third and fourth generation ! 
How many persons, blinded by the god of this world, 
leave publications of a corrupting, demoralizing ten- 
dency — sugar-coated poisons, serpents in the grass, 
the very devil himself in their libraries or on their centre- 
tables, to curse their offspring ! While these same un- 
wise parents are sleeping in their graves their children 
drink in this novel trash to their own destruction ! 
We know a minister of the Gospel, aside from other 
pernicious readings, who had Shakspeare neatly bound 
in his library ! Who knows but this same corrupting, 
fascinating, licentious writer, may be the instrument 
in ruining the souls of his children forever? The 
lovely Charlotte Elizabeth tottered on the verge of 
everlasting death by poring over the pages of this be- 
witching author. [See her " Recollections." Pages 
50 and 51.] 

Says the Rev. O. B. Waters : 

" Shakspeare's morality seldom rises above the 
supreme selfishness of the heartless world, and often 
sinks into its grossest forms. He has exhibited ambi- 
tion, avarice, revenge, jealousy, and all the grovelling 
passions of the human soul with all the skill of art, 



CHARLES DICKENS. 69 

but where are those opposite graces of the spirit which 
alone can antidote their influence ? It is remarkable 
that amid all the multitudinous phases of human 
thought and feeling, which the myriad-minded poet 
has represented, he has never attained to any concep- 
tion of those high and sublime forms which flow out 
under the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

" The tendency of nearly all his writing is to quicken 
into inordinate and morbid activity that faculty which 
phrenologists term amativeness, already strong enough 
to need firm and wise restraint. No one can deny, 
moreover, that with all his excellences there is among 
his plays a great amount of senseless frivolity, un- 
worthy of a thoughtful, earnest mind. 

" Besides, who has counted up the passages where 
he is vulgar, and covertly and openly licentious ? Not 
a few there are, I am sure, that are most grossly so. 
"What a sink of pollution, vulgarity and licentiousness 
is, for instance, the Merry Wives of Windsor. While 
no one of his plays, even the best, can give you a 
model, and scarcely an instance, of those exalted and 
self-denying virtues which spring only from a heart- 
felt sympathy with the spirit of the Bible. 

" His powerful and exciting delineations of love have, 
without doubt, ruined many a soul. If those instances 
were recorded where the works of Shakspeare have 
had an influence, either directly or indirectly, in excit- 
ing the passions to such an ungovernable strength, 
that men have been led into crime and misery, what 
an account could be placed to their score." 



70 CHARLES DICKENS. 

In what Christian library is not this serpent coiled ? 
In some theological seminaries it's made a kind of text- 
book. One man in sarcerdotal garb in Brooklyn, N.Y., 
we are credibly informed, places this seductive author 
next to the Bible in value ! And from his ministra- 
tions to the people from Lord's day to Lord's day, and 
during the week, we take it for granted he is more en- 
amored with Shakspeare and Fowlerism than with 
God's own Book — the Book of books — heaven's mes- 
sage — the purchase of blood ! 

" O world ! how deeply fallen from thy sphere ! 
O mind ! how lost thy noblest wing of thought ! 
O soul ! how base thy form — how lost art thou 
To God's similitude — how deep thy stain ! " 



" THE LOYE OF MONEY THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL." 

Covetonsness, or the love of gain, is the mammoth 
sin of the age, the leprosy of the soul. It sheds a 
blighting influence over the finest affections and 
sweetest comforts of mankind ; it eats like a canker 
the life-blood of salvation ! It closes the door to hos- 
pitality, to deeds of mercy, truth, benevolence, and 
love. It grinds the poor, traffics in the bodies and 
souls of men, receives robbery for burnt- offering. It 
leads to quibbling, screwing, and jewing, to fraud and 
falsehood, to unjust usury. It takes advantage in 
trade, in buying and selling. It robs holy time, with- 
holds from the missionary-box, starves the minister, 
perishes the soul ! 




Busy Folks— Folks tliat are Busy. 

WORK ! WORK ! WORK ! 

" Whatsoever thy hand Jindeth to do, do it with thy might?'' Eccles. ix. 10. 
" God gives the bird its food, but does not throw it into its nest." 

" Let us then be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait." 

A few lines to little Mary on business habits, activity, 
life, soul, and power in doing this, doing that, run- 
ning here, running there, flying here, flying there. 

Dear little niece, here you see a whole family, up 
and doing! Doing what — folding their hands, taking 
the easy-chair ? or lying down crying : " a little sleep, 
a little slumber — a little folding their hands to sleep ?" 
Not a syllable of it, every one is at her post — even 
grandma, with her " specs" on, is as busy as she can be. 

71 



72 BUSY FOLKS — FOLKS THAT ARE BUSY. 

Paul told the Thessalonians, " If any would not 
work, neither should he eat." 2 Thess. iii. 10 ; also. 
Ephesians iv. 28. 

" Labor with what zeal we will, 

Something yet remains undone ; 
Something, uncompleted still, 
Waits the rising of the sun." 

Look at the birds — any idlers here ? the fishes — any 
idlers there ? Lift your eyes to the starry heavens, the 
planetary systems, worlds on worlds flying through 
infinite space — any idlers or dozers up there ? Look 
at the skipping, dancing animalcule, millions on 
millions, before the setting sun — any idlers here, 
dosers or sleepers ? Behold, nature dressed in living 
green — waving fields, beautiful landscapes, fruits and 
flowers — any idlers, dozers, or loungers — seen or heard 
of here ? 

Everything in nature and grace are active, full of 
life and motion, on the wing. The sun, the moon, the 
sparkling heavens, the birds, the floods, the rippling 
brooks and flowing founts ; the birds warble on every 
tree in ecstacy of joy ; the tiny flower, hidden from 
all eyes, sends forth its fragrance of full happiness; 
the mountain-stream dashes along with a sparkle and 
murmur of pure delight. The object of their creation 
is accomplished, and their life gushes forth in har- 
monic work. O plant ! O stream ! worthy of admira- 
tion to the wretched idler ! 

Idleness is the bane, the moth, the gangrene, the 
curse of life. 



BUSY FOLKS — FOLKS THAT ARE BUSY. 73 

" Dream not, but work ! Bo bold ! be brave ! 
Let not a coward spirit crave 

Escape from tasks allotted ! 
Thankful for toil and danger be ; 
Duty's high call will make thee flee 
The vicious — the besotted." 

The secret of all success in life, of all greatness — nay, 
of all happiness, is to live for a purpose. There are 
many persons always busy, who yet have no great 
purpose in view. They fritter away their energies on 
a hundred things, never accomplishing anything, be- 
cause- never giving their undivided attention to any 
one thing. They are like butterflies, that flit from 
spot to spot, never gaining wealth ; while the ant, who 
strictly keeps to a certain circuit around her hole, gra- 
dually lays up stores for winter comfort. " Go to the 
ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise." 

These early business-like habits and moral inculca- 
tions, watered by the dews of heavenly grace, shield 
the juveniles from temptation's snare — they grow up 
to manhood's prime, become useful, benevolent citi- 
zens, shine as lights, if so be Christ is found in their 
soul---the hope of glory. 

" We need only labor as hard as we can, 
For all that our bodies may need, 
Still doing our duty to God and to man, 
And we shall be happy indeed. " 

Dear Mary, will you please listen to these few, gen- 
tle hints by way of improvement ? Parents, will you ? 
But let us glance at life and activity in a spiritual and 
heavenly light. How is it here touching things godlike 



74 BUSY FOLKS — FOLKS THAT ARE BUSY. 

— tilings divine? Are you on the wing, flying here, 
flying there on deeds merciful and gracious ? Some 
little folks and some big folks, calling themselves dis- 
ciples, are snail-like, dumpish, mopish, doltish, cling 
to earth. 

Multitudes of Christian professors are locked up in 
Doubting Castle for want of work — activity in doing 
good — in imitation of the blessed Master. 

No marvel. What else could be expected, so long 
as they take the easy-chair, sleep while angels sing, 
" Glory, glory ? " What is a soldier ? for what does he 
enlist? To slumber at his post, sleep on downy 
pillows ! 

" The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His 
head." Did Job, think you, doubt or despond while 
searching out objects of charity and mercy, when he 
delivered to the poor that cried and the fatherless, and 
him that had none to help him ? When the blessing 
of him that was ready to perish came upon him, and 
when he " caused the widow's heart to sing for joy ? " 
Job was eyes to the blind and feet to the lamaj and 
the cause he " knew not, he searched out." 

Did Paul, think you, suffer with doubts or despon- 
dency while on the wings of love pouring in the liquid 
flame of God's truth ? 

Were Peter, James, or John, ever troubled with 
dumps or dumpishness, or were they ever locked up 
by Giant Despair in Doubting Castle after receiving 
the pentecostal baptism, the tongue of lire ? 



BUSY FOLKS — FOLKS THAT ARE BUSY. 75 

And may not our sweet little niece, though yet very 
little, have this same pentecostal baptism and tongue 
of fire? Is not the blessed Lord just as ready and 
willing to bestow this baptismal fire and tongue of fire 
on the littlest of the little as on the biggest of the big?" 

This activity in doing good, diffusing light and life, 
is the great secret of warding off Satan's fiery darts, 
of growing in grace, of holy living. 

" Why stand ye here all the day idle ? " 

<; Live for something ; be not idle, 
Look about thee for employ ; 
Sit not down to useless dreaming, 
Labor is the sweetest joy." 

u The poor ye have always with you ; and whenso- 
ever ye will, ye may do them good." In ministering 
to the poor ye minister to Jesus. " Whose ver shall 
give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold 
water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto 
you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." Matt. x. 42. 
" God is not unrighteous to forget your work and la- 
bor of lova which ye have showed toward His name, 
in tlfat ve have ministered to the saints, and do min- 
ister." Heb. vi. 10. What saith Jesus to those on 
his right hand, in Matt, xxv., 34 ? " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world : " wherefore? 
" I was hungry, and ye gave me meat ; I w T as thirsty, 
and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took 
me in ; I w r as naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, 
and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto 



76 BUSY FOLKS — FOLKS THAT ARE BUSY. 

me." " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

" Be thine the joy that angels know, 
Who visit the abodes of pain, 
With interest list to tales of woe, 
And bid the dying live again." 



NOTHING TO DO. 

" Nothing to do ! " in this world of ours, 
Where weeds spring up with fairest flowers, 
Where smiles have only a fitful play, 
Where hearts are breaking every day. 

" Nothing to do !" thou Christian soul, 
Wrapping thee round in thy selfish stole ; 
Off with the garments oi sloth and sin ! 
Christ, thy Lord, hath a kingdom to win. 

" Nothing to do ! " There are prayers to lay 
On the altar of innocence, day by day ; 
There are foes to meet within and without, 
There is error to conquer, strong and stout. 

" Nothing to do ! " There are minds ^p teach 
The simplest form of Christian speech ; 
There are hearts to lure with loving wile 
From the grimmest haunts of sin's defile. 

" Nothing to do ! " There are lambs to feed, 
The precious hope of the church's need ; 
Strength to be borne to the weak and faint, 
Vigils to keep with the doubting saint. 

" Nothing to do ! " and thy Saviour said, 
" Follow thou me in the path I tread." 
Lord, lend Thy help the journey through, 
Lest faint, we cry, " So much to do." 







GIVING ALMS? WHAT ELSE CAN IT BE? 

BEAUTIFUL ? WHAT MORE ? 

This little girl has, doubtless, been early taught " to re- 
member the poor," " rejoice with them that do rejoice, and 
weep with them that weep ;" " that it is more blessed to 
give than to receive." " Blessed is he that considered! the 
poor." 

" Give, and it shall be given unto you : good measure, 
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall 
men give into your bosom. For With the same measure 
that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again." 

77 



78 GIVING ALMS? 

" Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, 
when it is in the power of thy hand to do it." Prov. iii. 27. 

" 'Twas the widow's mite which call'd 
Blessings from the Lord ; 
Not the lavish treasures thrown 
From the rich man's hoard. 1 ' 

Little folks, are you on the giving order ? First of all, 
have you given all to Jesus, presented your bodies living 
sacrifices to God, which is your reasonable service ? 

It is only by commencing early in life the consecration 
of ourselves, our substance to God, that we can establish 
the habit of benevolence. While we postpone the dis- 
charge of our duty until we have become wealthy, the love 
of gain is insensibly acquiring strength, we listen to the 
claims of benevolence with less and less sensibility, and at 
last become deaf to the voice of humanity. When we are 
able to give without the smallest self-denial, the disposition 
to give has perished, and we have been transformed into 
the very misers whom once we thoroughly despised. 



CHARITY. 



" While thou hast a heart to feel 
Sympathy and love, 
And thy voice can lift a prayer 
To the Lord above : 

" Say not thou hast nought to give — 
Nought to call thine own : 
Life's best pleasures do not spring 
From one source alone." 




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79 



Charles D i c k e n s— Continued. 




Tlie Serpent Coiled. 

Who is he? where is he? How did he live? how 
did he die ? Of his daily walk, we give the items of 
one day, leaving you, beloved, to judge of the rest. If 
one day is devoted to the god Bacchus, how many 
more ? 

We clip the following from Appletort s Journal : 

Mr. Franklin Philip, a Washington bookseller, who 
was well acquainted with Dickens, publishes the fol- 
lowing extract from*a diary, which he kept while in 
England last year, and which gives some details of the 
home-life of the great author : 

" July 25, 1860. — Went to Charing-cross station at 
10.40, met Dickens there (by appointment), accom- 
panied Mr. Dickens, his daughter, sister-in-law, Miss 
Stone (sister of Marcus Stone, the artist), J. M. Kent, 
editor of the Sun, to Higham, by rail ; gentlemen 
walked up to Gad's Hill ; ladies sent on in a carriage. 
On arrival (half-past twelve), commenced with 'cider- 
cup,' which had previously been ordered to be ready 
for us — delicious cooling drink — cider, soda water, 
sherry, brandy, lemon-peel, sugar and ice, flavored 
with an herb called burrage, all judiciously mixed. 

80 



THE SERrENT CQILED. 81 

Lunch at one o'clock (completed by a liqueur which 
Dickens said was ' peculiar to the house. 5 ) From two 
to half-past five we were engaged in a large, open 
meadow at the back of the 'house, in the healthful and 
intellectual sport of ' Aunt Sally,' and rolling balls on 
the grass; at half-past three interval for ' cool brandy 
and water ; ' at half-past six o'clock we dined — young 
Charles Dickens, and a still younger Charles Dickens 
(making three generations), having arrived in the 
meantime — dinner faultless, wines irreproachable ; nine 
to ten, billiards; ten to eleven, music in the drawing- 
room ; eleven, 'hot and rebellious liquors,' delight- 
fully compounded into punches ; twelve, bed." 

" Voluptuous man ! sated with nature's boons, 
With dishes tortured from their native taste 
And mad variety ; to spur be^>nd 
Its wiser will the jaded appetite ! 
Is this for pleasure ? Learn a juster time, 
And know true temperance is luxury." 

Make any pretentions to Bible Christianity ? How 
could he,while living a life of constant bacchanalianism? 
" They that are after the flesh do mind the things of 
the flesh." " To be carnally minded is death." And 
yet who worshiped him not on both sides of the big 
waters? — made a god of a man who caused such an 
immense waste of time, talent, and property, in "sow- 
ing tares among the wheat " " while men slept ! " 

Were faculties ever more shamefully and wickedly 
abused? — were talents, almost angelic, ever buried 
more deeply down ? And what saith the Lord of the 



82 THE SERPENT COILED. 

man who hid his talent in the earth? instead of 
putting it to the exchangers ? 

" Take, therefore, the talent from him, and give it 
unto him which hath ten talents. 

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and 
he shall have abundance : but from him that hath not, 
shall be taken away, even that which he hath. 

" And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." Matth. xxv. 28, 29, 30. 

Was there ever presented a more shameful, disgust- 
ing spectacle than the frantic ado made over this sen- 
sualist, an open foe to temperance— a caricaturist of 
God's faithful ministers, and who fell at last a victim 
to loathsome gluttony ! "He dug his grave with his 
own teeth. "* « 

Intemperance is a crime heaven-daring! It's a crime 
against ourselves — against others — against God ! 

" Be not amongst wine-bibbers ; amongst riotous 
eaters of flesh. 

"For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to 
poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." 
Prov. xxiii. 20-21. (See also 1 Cor. vi. 10.) 

With all these startling facts staring us full in the 

* Friends of love and of Gospel truth, do any of you question the 
facts that sensuality was the god of Charles Dickens ? carnal pleasure, 
fleshly lusts? read, if you please, the account of his "amateur 
theatricals" — "dramatic revels" — now spread before us — written by 
one of his own intimate friends. 

"If the Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal, then follow him." 
1 Kings xviii. 21. 



THE SERPENT COILED. 83 

face (and the half is not told), both religious editors 
and ministers are indignant — fly in a passion — bristle 
up porcupinely ! it' man, woman, or child, has the 
temerity or moral courage to question the piety of this 
suicide or self-murderer ! Indeed we are looked upon 
with an eye of suspicion — counted offenders if we do 
not bow the knee to this prince of novel-writers. 
Whom shall we obey? God or man? When John fell 
down at the feet of an angel in the isle called Patmos, 
what said the angel ? u See thou do it not, worship 
God." Eev. xxii. 9. 

Mark well, also, how terribly the Almighty frowns 
upon this idolatry or man-worshiping. 

The most fearful judgments have come upon those 
who attempt to rob God of His glory. " Is not this 
great Babylon that I have built § " said Nebuchadnez- 
zar, in a spirit of self-exaltation. What now? He was 
driven from men to dwell among the beasts of the field, 
and made to eat grass as oxen. Dan. iv. 30-32. Mark 
that wicked Herod also, who took glory to himself, and 
immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because 
he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms, 
and gave up the ghost. Acts xii. 21-23. 

" I am the Lord ; that is my name ; and my glory 
w r ill I not give to another, neither my praise to graven 
images." Isa. xlii. 8. "Whosoever shall exalt himself 
shall be abused ; and he that shall humble himself shall 
be exalted." 

" The dearest idol I have known, 
Whate'er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from Thy throne 
And worship only Thee." 




u 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 21 



" Be thou to righteousness awake, 
And pray that you may never fall ; 
Nor give to si n or Satan place, 
But walk in all God's righteous ways.'* 

Consider, furthermore, beloved brother and sister, 
what heaven-daring presumption to preach a man to 
heaven whom God consigns to the " pit, devotes to 
utter destruction? " What is this but blotting out the 
work of grace, stamping down the atoning sacrifice of 
the Lamb slain ? What doctrine more pernicious, 
better calculated to lower the Gospel standard, give 
license to sin and sinners, encourage the sensualist, the 
truce-breakers, the profligate, the infidel and bold blas- 
phemer, to trample on justice, mercy and truth, deny 
the Lord that bought them, and still hope for heaven, 
glory eternal? 

The Bible declares that, "Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John iii. 
3. We must be changed in heart, turned from dark- 
ness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, by 
being made new creatures in Christ Jesus. Gal. vi. 
15. "The heart which was set on the world and sin, 
must be set on things above. The will must be re- 
newed and brought into subjection to the will of God ; 
the life will then be regulated by the word of God, 
and we shall aim in all things to please him. This 

85 



86 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

change must be wrought in us by the agency of the 
Holy Spirit" (John iii. 5), the operation of God on the 
soul ; and is realized when we believe in our Lord 
Jesus Christy for "he that believeth is born of God." 
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old 
things are passed away ; behold, all things are become 
new." 2 Cor. v. 17. 

Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. 

<; Jesus, my Lord, thy blood alone 
Hath power sufficient to atone ; 
Thy blood can make me white as snow, 
No Jewish type could cleanse me so." 

One of the most unhappy influences flowing from 
the present state of our country is the feeling that 
every man who sacrifices his life for the Union, dies a 
martyr, and goes to heaven as a matter of course. 
Patriotism is not piety. Man may love his country, 
but have no love for God. It is as true of the soldier 
as of men in the other pursuits of life; "He that be- 
lieveth on the Son of God hath everlasting life ; and 
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." 

" Ye shall not surely die," saith the old serpent, the 
devil, to Eve, while gazing on the forbidden fruit. 
But what saith the Lord ? "The soul that sinneth it 
shall die." "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish." " Without holiness no man shall see the 
Lord." u Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for 
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." 
" Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. ■ 87 

hewn down and cast into the fire." " The wicked shall 
be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
God." "Let God be true, but every man a liar." 
Rom. iii. 4. 

" No more the sovereign eye of God 
O'erlooks the crimes of men ; 
His heralds now are sent abroad 
To warn the world of sin." 

What we testify of adult persons touching the new 
birth — a life of faith on the Son of God, a holy walk, 
the very same we testify of children unconverted, 
'' serving clivers lusts and pleasures." 

Little folks lost? Yes, they are; just as really as 
the big folks are that sin against God. Children, 
capable of sinning against heavenly light, telling false- 
hoods, practicing deceit, manifesting ill temper, self- 
will, disobedience to parents in any form, are guilty, 
under condemnation, and need pardon, forgiveness, 
the washing of regeneration, the atoning blood of Je- 
sus. They have sinned voluntarily, grieved the Holy 
Spirit, and should be directed forthwith to the fountain 
open for sin and uncleanliness.* 

"Except ye be converted and become as little child- 
ren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
Matt, xviii. 3 



* In speaking of the "little folks," let it be always distinctly un- 
derstood that little Mary is included, as she is the burden of our 
prophesy or cogitations from first to last, in this new book entitled 
"A Holiday Present ; or, educating little Mary for the Heavenly 
Kingdom." 



88 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

" No wise, or good, how just soe'er they seem, 
Can saved be, unless the Lord redeem. 
No blood can flow from veins of man or beast, 
Sin's stains to cleanse, that can blot out the least. 
'Tis Christ alone, by whom we live, 
Who can the vilest sins forgive. 

" The best, the worst, most stubborn or profane, 
May hope in various ways this Heaven to gain ; 
But never one shall reach that heavenly land, 
Until a penitent, child-like he stand. 

'Tis then the Lord his pardon gives, 
And joy the purest in him lives." 



LITTLE CHILDREN GUILELESS. 

Children are not opposed to Bible and solid reading 
if rightly taught from early infancy and kept from 
vicious readings and vicious associations. 

They are then free from guile, hypocrisy, and art. 
The prayers of childhood are the language of humility. 
They are free from pride and ostentation. Children 
do not " love to pray standing in the synagogues and 
in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of 
men." From entertaining such a motive, the child* 
heart, in its genuine modesty, is entirely free ; from 
contact with sucli a thought, the child-mind, in its low- 
liness and humility, instinctively shrinks. The prayers 
of childhood are the language of simplicity. 




89 



Charles Dickens.— No. 3.* 

"Little children^ heefi yourselves from idols P 

What now ? Shall we bow to this idol at the risk 
of our good name, our life, or of being cast into the 
fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter than is wont — 
when the herald cries aloud, " To you it is commanded, 
O people, nations, and languages, that at what time 
ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, 
psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall 
down, and worship the golden image that Nebuchad- 
nezzar the King hath set up : and w r hoso falleth not 
down and worshipeth, shall the same hour be cast 
into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.' 5 

"What said Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to 
this ? " We are not careful to answer thee in this 
matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able 
to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he 
will deliver us out of thine hands, O King. But if 
not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not 
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which 
thou hast set up." Daniel iii. 4, 5, 6. 



* But why occupy so much time and space in severing the head 
of this one serpent of serpents ? 

1. It's because this serpent is coiled in a bed of roses, concealed. 

2. Because it's Diana, "whom all Asia and the world wor- 
shipeth." Acts xix. 27. 

90 



CHARLES DICKENS. 91 

Two confessors of Christ, during the reign of King 
Henry VIII., were threatened with martyrdom by the 
Lord Mayor of London. He told them unless they 
gave up what lie considered their errors, he would tie 
them in a bag and have them thrown into the Thames. 
They replied : " My Lord, we are going to heaven, 
and it matters very little whether we go there by 
land or water." 

Again, what saith Demetrius, the shrine maker? 
" Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. 
Moreover, ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, 
but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath per- 
suaded and turned away much people, saying, that 
they be no gods, which are made with hands. So that 
not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught : 
but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana 
should be despised, and her magnificence should be 
destroyed, whom all Asia, and the world worshipeth." 

" Thou shalt have no other gods before me." " If 
the Lord be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow 
him." 1 Kings xviii. 21. " Choose you this day whom 
ye will serve ; . . . but as for me and my house, 
we will serve the Lord." Josh. xxiv. 15. 




IDOLATRY; OR, THE WORSHIPPING OF IDOLS. 

Some suppose that the sun, moon, and stars were the 
first objects of idolatrous worship. Soon after the Flood 
idolatry prevailed extensively. Abraham's father's fam- 
ily served other gods beyond the river Euphrates, 
Laban had idols, which Rachel, his daughter, stole 
and carried away. The Egyptians, though pretend- 
ing to great wisdom, worshipped bulls, snipes, leeks, 
onions, etc. The Greeks had thirty thousand gods ! 
The Chaldeans, Romans, and Chinese were not a whit 
behind. 

The heathen had idols of all sorts — paintings, all 
varieties of sculpture, and these of many kinds of ma- 
terials, as gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, etc. At the 
present day idolatry prevails over a great portion of 

02 



THE SWORD THAT CUTS : 93 

the earth, and is practised by about 600^000,000 of the 
human race. The veneration which the Papists pay to 
the Virgin Mary and other saints and angels, the 
adoration paid to the bread in the sacrament, the cross, 
crucifixes, relics, and images, is nothing more nor less 
than idol- worship. 

* Idolatry was never more prevalent than at the pres- 
ent day. Covetousness is idolatry ; the placing our 
affections unduly on any earthly object, the excessive 
attachment or veneration for anything, is idolatry. 
"Whoever loves this world, or the pursuits of wealth, or 
honor, or ambition, or selfishness in any form, and for 
these forgets or neglects God and Christ, such a one 
is an idolater. We may worship our houses, furniture, 
or wardrobes. Husbands may worship their wives, 
wives their husbands, parents their children. " Thou 
shalt have no other gods before me." 

To idolize is to love to excess gold, wealth, equi- 
page, costume, etc. One of the most fearful, prevalent, 
alarming evils of our day is idolatry in dress, conform- 
ing to the world in gay, costly, and fashionable adorn- 
ments. Novel-reading and idolatry in dress go hand 
in hand ; they aid and stimulate each other. 

And can these idolaters hope to escape the awful 
condemnation ? 

Idolaters are classed with " dogs, and sorcerers, and 
whoremongers, and whosoever loveth and maketh a 
lie." Rev. xxii. 15. 



THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 

" Yes, the angel of God descended in glory, 
O loving Redeemer, announcing Thy birth ; 
And voices seraphic took up the sweet story, 
And sang the glad tidings of ' peace upon earth.' 

" O season most blessed ! again it returneth, 

With smiles and rejoicings we welcome its morn ; 

Ah ! cold is the heart from its gladness that turneth, 

Nor hailest the day when our Saviour was born." 

" And there were in the same country shepherds 
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by 
night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, 
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them ; 
and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto 
them, Fear not ; for behold, I bring you good tidings 
of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto 
you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign 
unto you : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling- 
clothes, lying in a manger." 

U 



Prosy Sins ; or Sinning by Proxy. 



THE PARTAKER AS BAD AS THE THIEF. 

1 ' Woe, woe to him on safety bent, 
Who creeps to age from youth ; 
Failing to grasp his life's intent. 
Because he fears the truth." 

" Neither be ye partakers of other men's sins." 

What man in the pulpit lias not landed Dickens to 
the skies, a man whose god was his " belly," and whose 
glory was his shame, and who minded "earthly things ?" 
— Phil. iii. 19. And what Christian publisher or book- 
seller has not scattered his works over the land more 
numerously than the leaves of autumn, to curse gene- 
rations yet unborn? What religious editor has not 
testified to the world, saying : " It is the voice of a 
god and not of a man ? " 

And yet there are more than " seven thousand who 
have not bowed the knee to this Baal — this Nebuchad- 
nezzar's golden image — this Diana of the Ephesians." 

Praise the Lord. One blessed Christian brother, in 
the editorial chair, speaks thus in the fear and love of 
God : u It is unblushing impudence to ask a Christian 
editor, wholly devoted to God's service, as he should 
be, to lend his paper for the purpose of aiding the cir- 
culation of froth and fiction. Shall we, through edi- 
torial courtesy, comply with what has become almost 

95 



96 PROXY SINS ; OR SINNING BY PROXY. 

a universal custom among editors? Far from it. 
When we lift our pen to widen the waves of pollution 
and moral death, sent over the country by these light, 
frivolous and satanic publications, we will take down 
our significant motto, and throw off with it the profes- 
sion of religion. We will not profess devotion to 
' truth and holiness,' and so directly assist the devil 
in his work of destruction. Such courtesy belongs 
not to the school of Christ." 

Were all religious editors and publishers to stand 
thus nobly for the truth as it is in Jesus, instead of 
assisting Satan to do his dirty work, what an avalanche 
of misery, ruin, desolation and damnation it would 
save ! 

" Truth is earnest. Truth is fearless, 
Ever dwelling in the light ; 
Still by Error's frowns undaunted, 
Striving only for the Right. 

Truth is strong and noble ever, 
And.no power its course may stay ; 

No dark mists of persecution, 
Long can vail its blessed ray." 




THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 



What are they? Some writers suppose they were 
erected by the Israelites, while under the yoke of 
Pharaoh. Josephus says that the Hebrews, during 
their hard labor in Egypt, were made to cut canals, 
raise dykes, erect pyramids, etc. Other writers take a 
different view of the subject. No matter — here they 
are, a wonder of wonders! We see what good folks 
will do, influenced by the Holy Scriptures ; and what 
bad folks will do, blinded by the god of this world. 
God made man upright ; but they have sought out 
many wicked inventions. 



07 



GOD'S HAND VISIBLE IN HIS WORD. 

" Pillar of fire, through ages dark — 
Or radiant cloud by day ! 
When waves would whelm our tossing bark, 
Our anchor and our stay !" 

In reading the word of God, it is interesting to 
observe the recognition of his hand, his presence, 
his providence, or his direction. Holy men of God 
saw his hand in every thing — they acknowledged it 
— they felt it. They recognized no chance ; met 
w T ith no accidents — no misfortunes. God was an 
everywhere present God ; his eye seeing all things ; 
his hand sustaining _all things ; his wisdom, good- 
ness, and mercy directing all things. That the 
Lord reigns, they thought ought to rejoice the 
earth. They felt that the destinies of states, king- 
doms, and worlds were perfectly safe in his hands ; 
all things would eventually come right. In the 
darkest times they could look up to God, and in his 
light see light. They were confident that whatever 
might appear, there was nothing but light around 
the throne. With confidence their hearts would 
say: "God is our refuge and strength, a very 
present help in our trouble ; therefore will not we 
fear, though the earth be removed, and though the 
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. 
God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved ; 
God will help her, and that right early. The Lord 
is my light, and my salvation ; whom shall I fear? 
The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall 
I be afraid?" 

98 




Little Mary and Aunty. 

" On that cheek and o'er that brow, 
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, 
The smiles that win, the tints that glow, 
But tell of days in goodness spent." 

What is aunty talking about or saying to her sweet, 
smiling little niece ? 

How good and gracious God is ? How much the 
Lord Jesus loves sinners, the biggest and the littlest ? 
How exceedingly desirous he is that all should come to 
him — accept offered mercy through the shedding of 
his own precious blood? There is not a shadow of 
doubt, but what aunty is pointing upward to the 
heavenly kingdom, bright and shining, where Christ 

99 



100 LITTLE MARY AND AUNTY. 

sitteth at the right hand of the Father, interceding 
for us. Little Mary's eye, meanwhile, is fixed intently 
and absorbingly on the one thing neeful — not a word 
escapes aunty's lips unheeded. Her heavenly inculca- 
tions " distil as the morning dew, as the small rain upon 
the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." — 
Deu. xxxii. 2. 

This dear child delights to hear aunty tell how Jesus 
came to seek and save the lost. 

" When Jesus came to bless mankind, 
Pure goodness was on earth revived ; 
Come, learn of Him, aod strive to live 
As our Redeemer lived." 

It is talking about Jesus and with Jesus, that fills 
every vacuum, lying down, rising up, going out, com- 
ing in, walking or riding, sitting at table morning, 
noon, and at evening ! Jesus is the first thing in the 
morning and the last at night. 

Is not this beautiful ? worthy the imitation of every 
aunty ? The more little folks and great folks talk with 
Jesus and about Jesus, " the way, the truth, and the 
life," the more they will delight in it a great deal. 
A good Christian brother who fell asleep in Jesus 
at our humble dwelling, a few years since, used to say, 
before his happy spirit took its flight to the heavenly 
glory, " he was better acquainted with the Lord than 
with any body else." How so? From the fact, he had 
been talking so long and so familiary with the Saviour. 
He talked more frequently and intimately with his 
blessed Lord than with his own children or his dear 



LITTLE MARY AND AUNTY. 101 

wife, the companion of his bosom. This should he 
so, for the Lord tells us : 

u lie that loveth father or mother more than me, is 
not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me, is not worthy of me. 

And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth 
after me, is not worthy of me. 

" He that findeth his life, shall lose it ; and he that 
loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." — Mat. x. 37, 
38, 39. 

Whenever he had troubles, trials, temptations, of 
any kind — sore besetments, fiery darts of Satan — he 
always laid the case or cases before Jesus forthwith. 
Whenever storms of affliction gathered thickly around 
him and burdens of mountain weight pressed heavily, 
he always, and invariably, presented the same to Jesus, 
cast all his care on him, in whom he trusted with con- 
fidence unshaken, and the voice from on high said, 
1 Peace, be still ' to the raging billows, and there was 
a great calm. 

" When the clouds are gathering o'er thee, 
And the path looks dark before thee ; 
When thy feet are worn and weary, 
And thy way seems long and dreary, 
Go to Jesus." 

This good brother in Christ, whose name was Kenny, 
had been talking with Jesus, about Jesus, and for 
Jesus, every day, and some days ten, twenty, or thirty 
times, and frequently in the silent watches of the 
night, for more than forty years. And this frequent 



102 LITTLE MARY AND AUNTY. 

conversation had been growing sweeter and more de- 
lightful every clay, until it was a little heaven on earth 
to be with Jesus. And now he is gone to be with him 
forever, and behold him face to face, where parting 
will be no more. 

And why should not every one, little and big, be 
thus familiarly conversant with the blessed Jesus, who 
died that we might live, who bore our sins in his own 
body on the cross ? The more we talk with Jesus and 
about him in the spirit of all grace, the more we become 
assimilated to him,molded over into his blessed heavenly 
character, drink into his meek, pure and lovely spirit, 
" changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the spirit of the Lord." — 2 Cor. iii. 18. 

The Lord Jesus lovely % The loveliest of the 
lovely, who on earth, beneath, or in heaven above, so 
lovely % 

' 1 No mortal can with him compare 
Among the sons of men ; 
Fairer is he than all the fair 
That fill the heavenly train." 

Get tired of being with Jesus and talking with him ? 
Impossible, if our hearts are in tune-gospelly. And 
what caps the climax of all mystery and mercy is, he 
is not tired of us. Did Jesus ever say to the littlest 
of the little, " Stop, stop, little one, cease your talking 
to me, I can hear you no longer?" Sooner the sun 
will cease to shine, the planets to roll. 

" Oh, yes ! I've heard my mother say, 
He never sent a child away 

That scarce could walk or ran ; 



LITTLE MARY AND AUNTY. 103 

For when the parent-love besought 
That he would touch the child she brought, 
He bless'd the little one. 

And I, a little straying lamb, 
May come to Jesus as I am, 

Though goodness I have none ; 
May now be folded to his breast, 
As birds within the parent's nest, 

And be his little one. 

And he can do all this for me, 
Because in sorrow on the tree 

He once for sinners hung ; 
And having wash'd their sins away, 
He now rejoices day by day, 

To cleanse the little ones. 

Others there are who love me too, 
But who with all their love can do 

What Jesus Christ has done 
Then if he teaches me to pray, 
I'll surely go to him and say, 

Lord, bless thy little one. " 



THE MOTHER'S MISSION. 

Sometimes mothers think it hard to be shut up at 
home with the care of little children. But she that 
takes care of little children takes care of great eterni- 
ties. She that takes care of a little child takes care 
of an empire that knows no bounds and no dimen- 
sions. 



Cairo, one of the largest cities of Middle Egypt, is 
on the western side of the river Nile. Among all the 
nations of antiquity, there is none more worthy of at- 
tention than Egypt. The invention of alphabetical 
letters and the art of writing is generally attributed by 
the ancients to the Egyptians. Egypt was the mother 
of the sciences, as well as of the arts. The first im- 
portant discoveries in astronomy were in Egypt. The 
first objects of Egyptian worship, destitute of divine 
revelation, were the luminaries of heaven. They sup- 
posed the sun and moon to be the principal and eternal 
gods, under the names of Isis and Osiris. 

104 



Satan Casting out Satan. 



" Foe some are already turned aside after Satan.' 7 — 
1 Tim. v. 15. 

Satan cast out Satan ? No, lie cannot. 

" Every kingdom divided against itself, is brought 
to desolation : and every city or house divided against 
itself, shall not stand. 

" And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against 
himself; how shall then his kingdom stand ? " — Matt, 
xii. 25-26. 

"The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a 
dream, but he that hath my word, let him speak my 
word faithfully ; " what is the chaff to the wheat, 
saith the Lord." — Jer. xxii. 

Turn to page . . . you have a case of nobleness, 
truly Gospel : Satan is rebuked. Here is a case before 
us directly opposite — Satan is embraced, clasped to 
the bosom ! 

This same Dickens, with iniquity hanging to his 
skirts drippingly, is cordially invited into the Plymouth 
pulpit ! By whom ? the pastor ? Who else ? a chip 
of the same block, "jolly fellows well met" and well 
mated, of one heart and of one soul. 

" As in water, face answereth to face, so the heart 
of man to man." — Pro v. xxvii. 19. 

" That which is highly esteemed among men is 
abomination in the sight of God." — Luke xvi. 15. 

1G5 



106 SATAN CASTING OUT SATAN. 

Eespect ministers, esteem them highly for their 
work's sake ? How can we, unless the} 7 respect them- 
selves ? the cause of God ? walk worthy of their high 
vocation ? 

" No man can serve two masters ; God and mam- 
mon ! " 

" Salt is good : but if the salt have lost his savor, 
wherewith shall it be seasoned ? 

" It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill : 
but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let 
him hear." — Luke xiv. 34-35. 

It is painful, alarmingly, to see how rapidly the pul- 
pit and the chair editorial are falling into disrepute, 
losing their hold on the consciences of the impenitent. 
This falling off is notable in the mouths of both saints 
and sinners. God honors them that honor him, and 
those that do not are lightly esteemed. 

No matter how wicked a teacher or professed minis- 
ter of the Gospel may be, how foolish, vain, selfish, 
sensual, money-loving, he will not lack for admirers 
and followers, those who embrace his pernicious errors, 
drink into his devilish spirit. 

He may sip the wine-cup, play crochet, spend hours 
on hours at nine pins, billiards, amuse himself in the 
parlor at charades, conundrums, and other like sports, 
till the very moment arrives for his taking the lead 
in religious worship at the sanctuary ! He may sit 
around the card-table, chess and checker-board, engage 
in idle, frothy chit-chat, attend the theatre, the circus, 
the ball-room, write novels, romances, sickly, senti- 



SATAN CASTING OUT SATAN. 107 

mental, foolish love-stories, talk nonsense, all the 
same ! 

Alas! alas! for this serving the Lord a little, and 
the old serpent, the devil, a great deal !* x * 

" The Church and world amalgamate, 
A union worse than with the State." 

Man, in sacerdotal garb, " Know ye not that the 
friendship of the world is enmity with God?" 

" Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not 
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some 
other way, the same is a thief and a robber.' — John 
x. 1. 

" Will ye play, then, will ye dally 
With your music and your wine ? 
Up ! it is Jehovah's rally ! 

God's own arm hath need of thine ! " 

" To the law and the testimony — if they speak not 
according to this word, it is because there is no light 
in them." 

Very many ministers and religious editors reprobate 
novel reading, romances, love tales, foolish anecdotes 
and comicals, and still leave us in the dark, never 
specify or aim a blow at the serpent's head, the trans- 
forming devils. The man that writes novels, publishes 
novels, sells novels, and puffs novels, may look for 
novel readers in his own family. And that same 



* These "Congregational Unions" (so-called), during the May 
meetings, what are they but religious pow-wows I Shameful ! 



108 SATAN CASTING OUT SATAN. 

novel writer, publisher, seller and puffer, may meet 
the curses of his children as eternity rolls on and on ! 

Mark well the words of Christ : " What measure ye 
mete, it shall be measured to you again." Rmnsellers 
And this passage literally true — the curses they impart 
often return tenfold upon their own pates, into their 
own bosoms. Very many children of those who traf- 
fic in spirituous liquors, intoxicating drinks, become 
inebriates, bloated sots, and find a drunkard's grave I* 
Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, all find a com- 
mon hell of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. 
So may it be with these dealers in intellectual poisons, 
that intoxicate the mind, corrupt the heart, pollute 
the soul — sink it low T er than the grave ! " Pie that 
soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." 

" Let righteous laws, for public good designed. 
Chain up these wolves and tigers of mankind : 
They have themselves no right to such employ 
To live like vultures — only to destroy. " 



* Little do rum and tobacco sellers dream of what they are doing. 
Novel writers, readers and puffers, little dream of what they are 
doing; in making this world "an Aceldama, a field of blood." 
From the most careful and minute calculation, the people of the 
United States pay $1,500,000,000 annually to retail dealers of liquors 
and tobacco ; who spend perhaps $50,000,000 more for liquors im- 
ported. In the year 1860, the United States produced twenty-one 
million dollars' worth ($21,495,240) of liquors, fifteen millions 
($15,770,210) being spirituous, and five millions ($5,725,000) malt. 
In 1860, the total production was forty-one million five hundred 
thousand dollars' ($41,500,000) worth, $18,000,000 being malt, and 
$23,500,000 spirituous. 




THE CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN". 



109 



110 DUTY, DUTY — DO YOUR DUTY. 

that moment we lose ground. Sinner, do you believe 
it? Christian, do you? Ministers, do you? Edi- 
tors, do you ? You know it, feel it, rue it — the 
father, the mother, the son, the daughter — the law- 
yer, the doctor, the statesman, the city councillor. 
Every one neglecting duty to God and man, feels that 
he has left open a gap. Above all, the Christian feels 
it to his sorrow, his' grief, his spiritual loss — in the 
withdrawal of heavenly, saving, sanctifying influences. 
Let a minister keep back any part of the price, fail in 
a single instance of declaring all the words of this life, 
and the whole heavens frown — stand aghast — hell 
claps her hands, devils are in jubilee. 

11 Toil in thy Master's vineyard ! watch and pray ! 
Toil for thy race, for whom the Saviour bled ; 
Let His example cheer thee on the way, 
And, if He bids thee, toil for daily bread." 

Let the Christian neglect his closet, his family du- 
ties, holy discipline, pfayer and praise — what now ? 
Any hope, comfort, consolation? Duty is all, every- 
thing. Friends, go forward in duty, in God's 
strength, wisdom, grace. Go forward everywhere — ■ 
go forward. God will bless, fill you with love — bless 
you here, bless you forever. Go forward! 

" Duty be thy polar guide ; 
Do the right whate'er betide ! 
Haste not ! rest not ! conflicts past, 
God shall crown thy work at last. 11 



THE CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN. 

4 Of drinks, I know but one which nature owns, 
As wholly suited to her several wants ; — 
And this is WATER. Cold and unconcoct 
With heat or other mixture, I would give 
It fresh and sparkling from its crystal font, 
To quench the thirst of every thing that lives." 

If, therefore, you wish for a clear mind, strong 
muscles, and quiet nerves, long life, and power pro- 
longed into old age, permit us to say : Avoid all 
drinks but water, and mild infusions of that fluid ; 
shun tobacco and opium, and every thing else that 
disturbs the normal condition of the system ; rely 
upon nutritious food and mild dilutent drinks, of 
which water is the basis ; and you will need nothing 
beyond these things, except rest and the moral regu- 
lation of all your powers, to gi^e you long, happy, 
and useful lives, and a serene evening at tfie close. 

" All hail to pure cold water, 

That bright rich gem from heaven 
And praise to the Creator, 

For such a blessing given ! 
And since it comes in fullness, 

We'll prize it yet the more ; 
For life, and health, and gladness 

It spreads the wide earth o'er.' 



Ill 



RUM'S DOINGS- 




" Hath lie not murdered our mothers — 

Brought their gray locks to the tomb ? 
Hath he not murdered our brothers, 

Yet in their manhood's bloom ? 
Hath he not coiled on our hearth-stones. 

Hissing with Upas breath ? 
On ! on to the warfare, brothers ! 

Nor cease till he writhes in death I" 

THE AWFUL DOOM ! 

Distillers, grog-sellers, saloon 
keepers, and hotel keepers, will 
you read your awful doom in 

THE RUM-SELLER'S DREAM. 

" Well, wife, this is too horrid : 
I cannot continue this business any longer." 

" Why, dear, what is the matter now ?" 

" O such a dream, such a rattling of dead men's 
bones, and such an army of starved mortals, so many 
murders, such cries, c nd shrieks, and yells, and such 
horrid gnashing of teeth, and glaring eyes, and such 
a blazing fire, and such devils — oh ! I cannot endure 
it. My hair stands on end, and I am so filled with 
horror I can scarcely speak. Oh, if I ever sell rum 
again !" 

" My dear, you are frightened." 

" Yes, indeed, I am ; another such a .night will I 

not pass for worlds." 

112 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 25. 



11 Let children to the Saviour come, 
From cottage aud from hall ; 
For in his Father's house is room, 
And in his love, for all." 

Beloved brother and sister, for your sakes and for 
your dear little Mary's sake, we add a few testimonials 
to our own, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word may be established. 

EYES OPENING. 
Testimonial No. 2. 

A few of God's faithful servants are beginning to see 
men as " trees walking" on this infinitely momentous 
question. 

We have already given the testimony of II. C. 
Dana, Esq. (page ). 

The godly bishop Littlejohn, of the Episcopalian 
order, has thrilled the public witTi his lectures on the 
evils of religious or sentimental fiction, throwing java- 
lin after javalin at the heads of these serpents coiled. 
We have space for a single item only from his gifted 
pen : 

" Our time is also remarkable for the development 
of a new type of the human family, viz : the ' strong 
minded woman.' A restless, busy, fragmatical thing 
is this modern Amazon, who divests herself of all 

113 



114 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

those soft, sweet attributes that were wont to be con- 
sidered the adornments of womanhood, that she tnight 
be the better prepared to engage in scenes of strife 
and turmoil more dear to her than an honest husband 
in his home. Our modern heroine of fiction is a slave 
to vanity, pleasure, ease, and fashion. This lotus-eater 
of fiction is a frail reed that breaks in the day of need, 
and pierces the heart, that leans on it for support. 

The sentimental fiction defends itself by the shal- 
low argument that it aims at making vice odious and 
virtue attractive. It professes the philosophy of Bar- 
num, as put forth in his autobiography, where he says 
that the age insists on vast sensations and stupendous 
humbugs, and adopts his policy. Virtue needs no 
such auxiliaries as the reeking fumes of the bar-room 
or the pestiferous atmosphere of a gambling-hell to 
make her attractive. The writers and publishers of 
such stuff are the enemies of public peace and morals, 
and the sacred ties of society and the purity of home 
plead against them. 

The last and worst of all is the sensual novel which 
chronicles, with an undercurrent of approval, the 
disreputable life of the w r ine-bibber and debauchee, 
and which furnishes a list of all those disgusting vices 
of which the Apostle says that it is a shame even to 
speak of. Such productions, lie believed, would not 
be tolerated even in Corinth or declining Rome, and 
would certainly be cast forth from the riotous court of 
Charles II. This corrupt press gives Satan new hope, 
and does his work as few other agencies could do it. 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 115 

Even while lie was speaking, lie grieved to think that 
men were employed at printing presses over in the 
city, producing this moral pestilence which would 
spread its ravages on the morrow. 

To remedy the evil, he would earnestly conjure 
all true Christians to assist in exposing the producers 
of those works. He would ask teachers, entrusted 
with the training of children, to use the authority and 
right of discipline with w T hich they are invested, to 
protect the minds of their children ; he would ask the 
managers of circulating libraries to make proper selec- 
tions of books, and finally he would ask parents to be 
firm in the enforcement of the rights they possess of 
knowing and sifting what their children read." 

M A novel was a book, 
Three volum'd, and once read ; and oft crammed ! 
Of poisonous error, blackening every page ; 
And oftener still, of trifling, second hand, 
Remarkable and old, diseased and putrid thought, 
And miserable incident, at war 
With nature, with itself and truth at war ; 
Yet charming still the greedy reader on, 
Till done — he tried to recollect his thought, 
And nothing found but dreaming emptiness. " 




BETHESDA, OR THE OPEN FOUNTAIN. 

Bethesda signifies a house of mercy : so called, 
because a public bath was here erected ; or because 
God graciously bestowed a healing virtue on the 
waters of it. As it lay but a little to the northeast 
of the Temple, the sacrifices might be washed in it ; 
-but it did not thence derive its healing virtue. 
Some years before our Saviour and divine Healer 
came in the flesh, an angel on some occasions 
descended, and troubled the water of this pool. 
Whoever first, after the agitation, bathed himself 
in it, was healed of whatever disease he had. Mul- 
titudes of diseased persons, therefore, waited in 
its five porches till the water was moved. One man 

116 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 117 

attended it* thirty-eight years, and was at last cured 
by our Saviour ; the healing virtue of whose blood, 
Spirit, and word, the pool no doubt typified. John 
v. 1-6. 

Reader, are you diseased morally, sin-sick, or 
sick of sin? Go wash in the fountain open "for 
sin and uncleanness, and be clean." Zech. xiii. 1. 

Christ is the Living Fountain. " If we walk in 
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his 
Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. 

" There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from lmmanuel's veins ; 
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

Thorough Bible training. — When George White- 
field came to Edinburgh, nothing struck or pleased 
him so much as the sound that rose in the church 
when he happened to quote a passage of Scripture, 
giving book, chapter, and verse. His hearers, as 
was their wont, had taken God's word with them to 
God's house ; and as they turned up the passage, 
the leaves of two thousand Bibles rustled like the 
sound of the wind among trees in his astonished 
ear. To their thorough Bible knowledge instruc- 
tion Scotland owes it that, though a hundred storms 
have blown, and blown their worst, she rides to-day 
over the very ground where the Reformers dropped 
their anchor three centuries ago. 

* Or rather, who had an infirmity ; for it is not said how long 
he had lain at the pool. 







Iiittle Mary and her Father. 

" How many deeds of kindness 
A little child may do, 
Although it has so little strength 
And little wisdom, too. 

" It wants a loving spirit, 

Much more than strength to prove, 
How many things a child may do 
For others by its love." 



Little Mary is getting bigger and bigger — growing 
taller and taller. "We must drop "little Mary" and 
say " Miss Mary ; " but as she increases in stature she 
also increases in wisdom and " in favor with God and 



man/ 



" Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wis- 
dom ; and with all thy getting, get understanding. 
Exalt her and she shall promote thee : she shall bring 

118 



LITTLE MARY AND HER FATHER. 119 

thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her : she shall 
give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of 
glory shall she deliver to thee." — Prov. iv. 7, 8, 9. 

" She is more precious than rubies : and all the 
tilings thou canst desire are not to be compared unto 
her. 

" Length of days is in her right hand : and in her 
left hand, riches and honor. 

" Her ways are ways of pleasantness : and all her 
paths are peace. 

" She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: 
and happy is every one that retaineth her." — Prov. iii. 
15, 16, 17, 18. 

This Christian father, as you see in the engraving 
imparting heavenly council, began the blessed work at 
the first buddings of infantile life, and has kept on 
thus pouring in, day in, day out, the oil and the wine of 
Gospel purity and love till the present, and is now 
reaping the fruits of his faithfulness. 

" He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- 
ing his sheaves with him." — Psal. cxxvi. 6. 

A lovely daughter, clothed with meek humility, 
abounding in all the Christian graces, polished " after 
the similitude of a palace," vjhat a blessing ! 

" Lips that can praise and pray, 
And gentle words of kindness say, 
To please the King of heaven." 

Beautiful ! Anything more so this side of glory 
eternal % " Whose adorning is not outward but imvard 



120 LITTLE MARY AND HER FATHER. 

—the heavenly."— Tim. ii. 9; 1 Peter iii. 8. "The 
hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corrup- 
tible. Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, 
which is in the sight of God of great price." 

There are other ministers of love more conspicuous 
than she, but none in which a gentler, lovelier spirit 
dwells, and none to which the heart's warm requitals 
more joyfully respond. She is the steady light of her 
father's house. Her ideal is indissolubly connected 
with that of his fireside. She is his morning sunlight 
and evening star. The grace, vivacity, and tenderness 
of her sex, have their place in the mighty sway which 
she holds over his spirit. She is the elation of his 
heart, the ornament of his hospitality, and the gentle 
nurse in his sickness. 

Happy father! happy mother ! This lovely daughter 
is yours — educated for the kingdom — an a olive plant" 
around your table. " Many daughters have done vir- 
tuously, but she excels them all." 

" Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a 
woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." — 
Prov. xxxi. 29, 30. 

And is not a little girl that feareth the Lord to be 
praised 1 giving God the glory ? 

Early piety is peculiarly pleasing in the sight of God. 
How lovely do the snow-drop, the primrose, and the 
daisy, appear in our sight, because they are the first 
flowers of the year ! And what is thus pleasing to us 
in the field of nature is equally delightful to God in the 
garden of piety. 



1 ' . . 




THE HAPPY MOTHER TRAINING LITTLE FOLKS. 



" Of all the spots that heaven has blest, 

The dearest place is home : 
'Tis there the fond heart loves to rest, 

And never loves to roam : 
While love plays round the smiling hearth, 
'Tis heaven's own bliss enjoyed on earth." 

121 



% 12 f 2 

A.HAPPY WOMAN MAKING OTHERS HAPPY. 
What spectacle more pleasing does the world afford, 
than a happy woman contented in her sphere, ready at all 
times to benefit her little world by her exertions, and trans- 
forming the briers and thorns of life into roses of paradise 
by the magic of her touch ? There are those who are thufc 
happy because they cannot help it ; no misfortunes dampen 
their sweet smiles, and they diffuse a cheerful glow around 
them as they pursue the even tenor of their way. They 
have the secret of contentment, whose value is above the 
philosopher's stone ; for without seeking the baser ex- 
change of gold, which may buy some sort of pleasure, they 
convert everything they touch into joy. What their con- 
dition is, makes no difference. They may be rich or poor, 
high or low, admired or forsaken by the fickle world ; but 
the sparkling fountain of happiness bubbles up in their 
hearts and makes them radiantly beautiful. Though they 
live in a log-cabin, they make it shine with a lustre which 
kings and queens might covet, and they make wealth a 
fountain of blessings to the children of poverty. Happy 
women are the brightest type of humanity, and we cannot 
say how much w^e owe to them for the progress of the race. 
Would there were enough to go round and round ! 



THE LITTLE BABY, NEWLY-BORN. 
41 Another little waif upon the sea of life ; 
Another soul to save amid the toil and strife ; 
Two more little feet to walk the dusty road, 
To choose where two paths meet, the narrow and the broad. 
Two more little hands to work for good or ill ; 
Two more little eyes, another little will ; 
Another heart to love, renewing love again ; 
And so the baby came — a thing of joy and pain." 







OUR BABY BETTER THAN EVERYBODY'S BABY. 

Ouk baby is the best baby that ever was. Everybody's 
baby is, we suppose. Oh, how she took us by surprise ! 
We found her in mother's bed one cold March morning. 
Where did she come from ? Bobby asked, and Jamie 
asked, and I. " God gave her," said her mother. " But 
how did he send her ? Did an angel fetch her ?" Mother 
didn't tell. She only said, " God sent her. It was so 
good hi God." " I shall always love God for giving me a 
little sister," said Bobby ; " that's just what I wanted, a 
little sister to play with." We must be very patient and 
gentle teaching her. Our baby's name is Mary. We call 
her Mamie. Oh, we love her so ! 

123 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom. —No. 27. 

" Home is the resort 
Of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty, where 
Supporting and supported, polished friends 
And dear relations, mingle into bliss." 

Testimonial No. 3. 

The beloved W. H. Vandoren, a Presbyterian, and 
faithful outspoken minister of the Gospel, has, for years 
gone by, poured in the flaming fire of God's truth, to 
burn up, if possible, these transforming devils or 
serpents coiled! Our space, we regret, admits a few 
sketches only of his Gospel pleadings. The Lord bless 
the man, and raise up a host, who, like him, will stand 
between the living and the dead. 

" Ours," says he, " is verily a fast age. One writer 
dramatizes the Saviour's life in the ' House of David.' 
Another ventures to endorse and describe heaven in 
'Gates Ajar.' Others, under the splendid drapery of 
romance, inculcate the doctrines of repentance, faith, 
new birth, etc. 

The question arises, why are these works of fiction 
tolerated? Why are responsible publishers and Chris- 
tian associations found to print them? But above all, 
why are parents and pastors found to permit them on 
their tables or to their Sunday-school libraries ? We 
can easily answer why the youth love to read them. 
Is it for the infinitessiraal amount of religious element 
contained in them ? We answer, No. The fascination 

124 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 125 

of the multiform pious novels that now swarm into our 
Sunday-school libraries, is anything and everything 
but their religious instruction. 

The real charm is excitement, long-continued excite- 
ment of the sentimental part of the youthful nature. 
The more of this exciting material the more marketable. 
They are not Godless, but in the reading, God is left 
out. 

If our clear children were in the thousandth part of 
the danger of receiving poisoned food as their souls are 
by means of poisoned novels, the entire press and pul- 
pits of the land would thunder out warnings long and 
loud enough to arouse the nation ! The silent miasma 
has, with noiseless step, gone over a land and left it 
desolate. Pious novels and their invariable yoke- 
fellows, impious novels, work a ruin as silently and 
produce a desolation running parallel with the soul's 
lifetime. In writing novels for the Sunday-school li- 
brary, authors mix up the same dangerous elements as 
in the theatre and novel. The poison comes to our, 
dear ones in sugar-coated pills. No small amount of 
talent is now enlisted by publishers, who want gold, 
to prepare these works. Their pages lead away from 
the Cross, because they lead not to it. This, then, is 
the crying sin, the gigantic evil of Sunday-school libra- 
ries as a rule. 

We cannot be faithful to our solemn vows, and more 
solemn trust as officers of the Church of God, and see 
this evil sweeping over the dividing lines between the 
church and the world, and hold our peace. If the 



126 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

facts which we are about to adduce are truths, it were 
a thousandth-fold better if nine out of ten of Presby- 
terian Sunday-school libraries were taken from their 
shelves and committed to the flames. 

Five distinguished elders, of the city of New York, 
told the writer, with almost tears in his eyes, 'We are 
compelled to keep our children out of Sunday-school 
altogether because of the swarm of pious novels which 
infests the shelves. 5 

These pious novels may not only advocate any one 
bad practice or evil principle. But as punches and 
various drugged wine, lead directly to form a taste for 
alcohol, so these books lead to novels. The fact that 
some professors of Christianity and so-called ministers 
write them, is no more an argument for their being 
harmless than our reverend forefathers' use of brandy 
made it a safe precedent for their children. It is a 
well-known fact that those bearing the office of minis- 
ters have proved among the bitterest curses with which 
our race has ever been visited. 

[Is not this emphatically true of the author of 
" Norwood ? "— Eb.] 

We need not add, that when persons attempt to sus- 
tain religious novels by the quoting of Parables and 
Pilgrim's Progress, it seems to us simple blasphemy. 
Who ever was led by Pilgrim's Progress to dramatize 
it for the stage like Norwood or Uncle Tom's Cabin % 
It is a fact that religious novels excite a taste for the 
theatre, and soon the gate is opened wide which leads 
to ruin here, and ruin eternal !" 




EAHAB LETTING DOWN THE SPIES ONE 

BY ONE.— Josh. ii. 

Beautiful ! is it not ? The hand of the Lord is 
in it. Did she not fear God? Was not her heart 
touched by love divine ? However wicked she 
might have been, lewd or dissipated, she had now 
received mercy at the hand of God, else would she 
ever have done what she did in rescuing the spies ? 
or would she be commended by the apostles Paul 
and James? Paul says in Heb. xi. 31 : "By faith 

127 



128 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

the harlot Eahab perished not with them that 
believed not, when she had received the spies with 
peace." 

James, ii. 25, says : " Likewise also was not 
Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had 
received the messengers, and had them sent out 
another way?" Here she is spoken of commend- 
ably — numbered among the worthies who endured 
as " seeing Him who is invisible." But is she com- 
mended for her falsehood or prevarication ? Not a 
word of it. Neither were the patriarchs, David, 
Peter, Ananias, or Sapphira. God abhors lying, the 
least particle of dissimulation. " Keep thy tongue 
from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." Psa. 
xxxiv. 13 ; see also Eph. iv. 25 ; Col. iii. 9. 

Reader, please turn to the facts in the case. 
Josh, ii ; Heb. xi. 31 ; James, ii. 25. 

" Truth is strong and noble ever, 

And no power its course may stay ; 
No dark mists of persecution 
Long can veil its blessed ray." 

Millions of the inhabitants of Europe, in the 
ages of popish darkness, died without the sight of a 
Bible. " Inspiration it is that openeth the window 
to let in the light ; that breaketh the shell, that we 
may eat the kernel ; that putteth aside the curtain, 
that we may look into the most holy place ; that 
moveth the cover of the well, that we may come by 
the water, even as Jacob rolled away the stone from 
the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks 
of Laban were watered." 




THE GARDENERS RESTING IN THE SHADE. 



"Out-door employment gives pleasure and gain, 
And makes us our troubles forget ; 
For those who work hard have no time to complain, 
And it's better to labor than fret." 
129 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 28. 

— « 

Great gifts may please the worldly-wise — 

They show the " pride of life ;" 
But oft they waken evil thoughts — 

Stir up a storm of strife. 

(Brother Vandoren's Testimony Continued.) 
THE RESULTS OF KKLTGIOUS FICTION. 

1. A disrelish for solid instruction. The morbid desire 
for novelty destroys that sobriety of mind inculcated by 
the Holy Ghost upon the youth to be " sober-minded." 

The wine to an invalid imparts an unnatural glow. 
Young minds, depraved in all their energies, soon 
reach an abnormal state. They have a glow, not of 
health, but of the hectic. 

Novels are no proper food for an immortal soul. 
"What would have been thought if young Samuel 
or Timothy had spent their days and nights sighing 
over fables — false scenes of sorrow, fictitious scenes of 
heroism, and falsehood everywhere ? What a sad pre- 
paration for secret prayer is the flush of emotion and 
passion kindled in sensitive minds. 

2. Time is killed — lost! A million times more pre- 
cious than gold is an irretrievable loss. Who can 
answer for the precious moments, hours and days worse 
than wasted, over these pious romances ! 

" Time is eternity ; 
Pregnant with all eternity cau give ; 
Who murders time, lie crushes in the birth 
A power ethereal, only not adored." 
130 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 131 

" Novels, religious and secular (continues this be- 
loved brother Vandoren), cause not only an immense 
sacrifice of mental power and of moral energy, but 
also of precious time. How many hours, days, and 
weeks are thus worse than murdered by the youths of 
both sexes in our land ! Some children bring these 
miserable pious novels to church, and under the very 
sound of the Gospel, Sinai's thundering and Calvary's 
calls of mercy, pore over their exciting pages. 

We have known parents to neglect their offspring to 
gloat their imaginations over the scenes of passion 
glittering through the pages of novels. 

3. Novels weaken the intellect. The manly powers 
need a brave nutrition. Washington could never have 
been trained for the camp, the battle, the victory, by 
an infant-school process. The warriors for Christ's 
sacramenta. host, girded with the Divine panoply, can 
never nerve their hearts or gird their spirit on the 
whipped syllabub of pious novels. Fiction never made 
a martyr. The fifty millions of heroes who sealed 
their faith with their blood, under Rome Pagan and 
Rome Papal, never could get ready for their baptism 
of fire by poring over the trashy novels which are sur- 
named pious. Truth, truth divine, truth eternal, must 
be their spirit's food. 

4. Novels blunt the sympathies. Our children's sym- 
pathies were created to respond to the calls of suffering. 
But calls of misery are those heard through the scenes 
of fiction, while the mind knows them to he false. 
The delicate sensibilities of the heart are put constantly 



132 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

to their extremest tension by the writers of novels. 
This false play cannot be repeated forever. The eyes 
cannot be used as the hand, nor the hand used as the 
foot, long, before the nerves of the eye can no longer 
see, and the nerves of the hand can no longer feel. 

The faithful laborers that, like ministering angels, 
move among the hovels of the poor, would never have 
learned their lessons from the pages of Dickens. That 
writer, a master in his way, never led a solitary person 
to take up her cross, and endure all, for the love of the 
Saviour. Such trees never bear such holy fruit; you 
will find the novel-readers sighing over the heroines 
and heroes of the theatre, but not among the down- 
trodden heathen at home or abroad do they ever go. 
Pious novels and impious novels dry up the sympa- 
thies of the heart, as the fire licked up the water in the 
trenches around the altar on Carmel. 

5. These religious romances lead our youth to the 
broad, gilded, flowery paths of modern novels. A 
novel is a theatre in the mind. All the ^or^eous cur- 
tains, actors, actresses, enchantry, fascinating the 
depraved heart, kindling all its passions, fast pre- 
pare the road to the theatre.* . 

It makes one sick at heart to think of pleasure's 
siren voice, and the promises given of joyous days and 
years to come." 

" Alas ! the dead are in her house, 
Her guests in depths of hell ; 
She weave 3 the winding-sheet of souls 
And lays them in the urn of everlasting death. 

* How true is this of " Norwood " and Dickens. 




GAZA, SAMSON, AND ONE GEEATEE THAN 

SAMSON. 

" Salvation, oh the joyful sound !" 

Gaza was anciently a city of the Philistines, near 
the southwest Doint o£ Canaan, sixty miles west of 
Jerusalem. It was given to the tribe of Judah, who 
conquered it after the death of Joshua. Judges i. 
18. But the Philistines retook it and kept pos- 
session of it till the reign of David. This place is 
remarkable for the exploits of Samson. On one 
occasion " he arose at midnight and took the doors 
of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went 
away with them, bar and all, and put them upon 
his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a 
hill that is before Hebron." See Judges xvi. 2, 3. 

133 



THE SHINING LIGHT. I3i 

Thus our blessed Lord, when in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, after his crucifixion between two thieves, 
arose as a conqueror over death and every foe ; 
and, as it were, broke open and carried away the 
very gates of the grave, while he ascended into 
heaven, as the first fruits of the resurrection. 

Eeader, is this Jesus yours ; your wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ; your 
life, your hope, your joy, your all and in all ? 

"Whosoever he be," says Christ, "of you that 
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my 
disciple." See Lukexiv. 33. Mark well, forsaketh, 
in the present tense. Also xiv. 27. " "Whosoever 
doth not bear his cross and come after me, cannot 
be my disciple." 

" Wouldst thou inherit life with Christ on high ? 
Then count the cost, and know- 
That here on earth below 

Thou needs must suffer with thy Lord and die. 

We reach that gain to which all else is loss, 
But through the cross. 

" Oh, think what sorrows Christ himself has known ! 

The scorn and anguish sore, 

The bitter death he bore, 
Ere He ascended to His heavenly throne. 
And deemest thou, thou canst with right, 

Whate'er thy pain ?"' 



" Truth crushed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies amid her worshippers.'/ 



A* 









I* 




CHARLIES STUDIO. 

Do you see him, young reader, how entirely absorbed 
he is in his lessons? His eye is fixed on the one thing; so 
much so, he neither sees nor hears his approaching sister. 

" Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do it with thy 
might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, 
nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest." 

135 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— ho. 29. 



" 'T is education forms the common mind, 
Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined." 

ONE WORD TO STUDENTS. 

Beloved, will you permit from a student, a word in 
love ? We have been a student in four different semi- 
naries, or schools of the prophets. And the seasons 
spent here were golden — pleasant, profitable, delight- 
ful ! And when we bad adieu to those sacred walls 
and walks, we felt like Eve in leaving Paradise: 

" O unexpected stroke, worse than death ! 
Must I leave thee, Paradise ?'' 

Therefore, before closing our meditations on the sub- 
ject of the light and fictitious readings, we venture to 
drop a kind word in the ears of students in schools, 
colleges, and seminaries. And this kindly word is 
especially for those institutions we have visited and 
have been more or less intimately associated with, New 
Haven, Princeton, Oneida, Hamilton University, Lane 
Seminary, Oberlin ; and more especially and emphati- 
cally still, is our word of exhortation to those semina- 
ries of learning in their infancy, just sprung into 
being at Benzonia, Berea, Camp Nelson and North 

Chili. 

13a 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 137 

BEWARE OF Till: SERPENT^ SUGAR-COATED POISONS — 
POPULAR WORKS OF FICTION. 

Upon no class of persons does the habitual reading 
of this branch of our literature exert a more pernicious 
influence than upon the young men connected with 
our colleges and other institutions of learning. We 
have heard it asserted by those whose positions enable 
them to judge intelligently in this matter, that there is 
scarcely an instance on record where a young man, 
who habitually and regularly peruses works of fiction 
during his undergraduate course, ever received that 
degree of mental discipline which is necessary for a 
successful entrance upon the great duties of life, and 
which it is the aim of a collegiate course to furnish. 
And, indeed, it is hard to conceive how the case should 
be otherwise ; for, besides the enormous waste of time, 
which is a necessary consequence of any considerable 
indulgence in novel reading, the mind accustomed to 
follow some sentimental hero or heroine through all 
sorts of silly, unheard-of adventures, and to revel amid 
scenes of fancied pleasures and happiness, takes little 
delight in attempting to grapple with the more pro- 
found truths of philosophy and mathematics, even 
when it is not wholly incapacitated to do so. 

It is a lamentable fact, that at least half of the 
young men who graduate each year at our colleges, 
hardly possess even the rudiments of a sound and sub- 
stantial education. Many, after spending three or four 
years within the walls of a university, possess, in return 
for their time and money, little besides their "diploma," 



138 EDUCATING LITTLE MAHY. 

to which, certainly, in our day, no great importance 
can be attached. We hazard little in saying that the 
evil in question may, to a very great extent, be traced 
to the "popular novels," which form so important an 
element in the composition of the student's libraries 
in many of our schools, colleges, and seminaries. And 
so long as our young men are content to spend the 
precious moments which ought to be devoted to the 
acquisition of substantial knowledge, and fritter away 
the precious time God has given them in poring over 
books and periodicals worse than profitless, to the 
neglect of all that is useful, instructive, and heavenly, 
just so long are we to expect superficial thinkers, fool- 
ish talkers and jesters, mere triflers instead of men. 

The indirect tendency of nine-tenths of all the re- 
ligious and popular novels of the present day is to 
inculcate false views of life, and to corrupt the imagina- 
tion instead of cultivating or purifying it. 

There is no greater danger to students, young and 
old, male and female, than the spread of this light, 
fictitious literature. It is a poison which strikes the 
heart of society, and causes its pernicious influence to 
permeate every vein of the social system. It con- 
tributes more than any other cause to prepare the 
young for a vicious career, to lay the foundation of 
criminal life, to fill prisons and penitentiaries, promote 
licentiousness in both sexes. 

How many boys of good promise have been turned 
into the path of vice by reading novel-books and 
papers ! How many girls have been led into im- 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 139 

morality, debasement, and ruin 1>y the same cause! 
Cases frequently transpire in which sonic lost one, at 
the close of a life of crime, tells how he or she was led 
from the ways of rectitude by nonsensical reading. 
And the instances which thus come to light are only 
as one in ten thousand. The power of the press, 
when directed aright, is understood and appreciated 
by everybody, and, of course, its power must be equally 
great when perverted to evil use. 

In our schools of every kind, for the rising age, the 
danger resulting from the light, popular, fascinating 
literature is beyond conception. The influences with 
which the young are surrounded, the traps and pitfalls 
which beset both sexes on every side, make it a com- 
paratively easj r thing to lead them astray. 

The mind of youth, yet in the tender and plastic 
state, receives evil impressions readily, and permits 
them to be moulded into a form which time cannot 
erase. There is no subject, therefore, to which parents 
and teachers should give greater attention than the 
character of the reading matter that they introduce 
into their homes. The father, in the fable, who took 
the half-frozen serpent into his house to warm it, and 
then left it with his family, did a less dangerous thing 
than the father who now takes a vitiated paper into 
his household. The serpent could only poison and 
destroy the body ; but the vicious journal leads to the 
destruction of both soul and body. 




VIEW IN SHECHEM. 



Shechem, or Sychem, is first mentioned in the history 
of Abraham, who erected his first altar in Canaan, and 
took possession of the country in the name of Jehovah. 
Gen. xii. 6. Jacob bought a field in this neighborhood, 
which he gave to his son Joseph, who was buried here. 
Gen. xlviii. 22. Here also Eehoboam gave the ten 
tribes occasion to revolt. 1 Kings, xii. In its vicinity 
was Jacob's well, at which Christ discoursed with the 
woman of Samaria, whose soul was touched with divine 
love, and who left her water-pot and went on her way 
rejoicing and praising God. John, iv. 5. 

Shechem also is the name of a Canaanitish prince, 
who abducted Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and after- 
ward was slain, and all his father's house, by Simeon 

uo 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 141 

and Levi. (See Gen. xxxiv.) Here we see the ruin- 
ous consequences of parental neglect and evil associa- 
tions. 

Dinah was an only daughter, and doubtless much 
beloved and too much indulged. She was enticed, or 
rather, in the outset, she went to visit " the daughters 
of the land," probably on some public occasion of mirth 
and festivity, — whether with or without the consent of 
her parents, we know not. 

" Young persons are never so safe as when under the 
care and inspection of prudent and pious parents. But 
those parents are far more inexcusable, who allow their 
daughters in acting so imprudently — nay, who do not 
interpose their authority to prevent them from heed- 
lessly and wickedly exposing themselves to unseen and 
unsuspected danger. Children who are indulged be- 
cause beloved, too often, like Dinah, become the shame 
and grief of their relations." 

Mothers, have you daughters, amiable, lovely, virtu- 
ous ? and do you permit them to mingle or associate 
with vicious or ungodly young men, to be gallanted by 
them, here and there, to this place and that place of 
amusement? You do it at your peril! Virtue once 
lost is lost forever ! One false or imprudent step is 
often everlasting for ruin, desolation, and damnation ! 
Look at the Five Points ; who is there ? "Who — in the 
lowest depths of degradation, on the brink of hell? 
These lost souls were once bright, shining, beautiful ; 
" olive plants," may be, enjoying " sweet home." 




A SON LEAVING HOME. 



Parent, is this your child bidding adieu to the paternal 
roof for a season, may be forever ? away from your vigi- 
lant, prayerful eye, to reside in a city where Satan prowls 
nightly — where temptations, snares, and pitfalls mark every 
step ? Crisis fearful, tremblingly ! Weigh it well ! 

Perhaps the most critical period in the life of young 
persons, is that when they leave the home of a parent to 
become, for several years, inmates of some other hanse- 
ls 



A SON LEAVING HOME. 143 

hold. On no account should a parent place his child in 
an ungodly family. Whatever inducements of connection, 
fortune, respectability may be held out, all should be over- 
weighed by the consideration that the situation has con- 
nected with it extreme danger of the ruin of the soul. 
Many a situation promises fair for this world, that would 
be ruinous as to the world to come. To place a child in a 
situation that would endanger his eternal interests, merely 
for the sake of some temporal advantage, is cruel in the 
extreme, however kindly designed. 

Home, home ! blessed home, how dear ! 

There is no word that has so much heart-thrilling and 
sweet music in its import, as the simple, yet meaning word 
home! When roaming far from our native home in a dis- 
tant and strange land among those who are strangers to us, 
ah, many are the bright visions we call up before our 
mind ; and as they pass in rapid succession before our ever- 
busy imagination, we cannot help exclaiming, " there is no 
place like home." What are the sunny skies of Italy, 
where the noblest and greatest sons of glory first drew 
their breath, the vine-clad hills of France, where clusters 
of golden fruits grow in rich profusion, to him whose heart 
yearns for the loved ones at home, and whose prayers even 
now are ascending to his God with hope that he will be 
spared a safe return to that " sacred and holy spot," where 
his best affections twine with undying tenacity around his 
childhood's home ! 

"But, frail child of mortality, thy home is not to be al- 
ways in this world of joys and sorrows, it is but for a day; 
it passes by and is numbered with the uncallable past. 
Here we are strangers, but God in his rich mercy bids us 
look above this sinful world to a far more glorious home 
than that of which earth can boast. 













THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. 

' How many sheep are straying, 

Lost from the Saviour's fold ! 
Upon the lonely mountains 

They shiver with the cold ; 
Within the tangled thickets, 

Where poison vines do creep, 
And over rocky ledges, 

Wander the poor lost sheep. 



" Oh ! who will go to find them? 
Who, for the Saviour's sake, 
Will search with tireless patience 
Through brier and through brake? 

144 



THE SHEPHERD AND niS FLOCK. 

Unheeding thirst or hanger, 
Who still, from day to day, 

Will seek, as for a treasure, 
The sheep that go astray ? 

: Say, will you seek to find them ? 

From pleasant bowers of ease, 
Will you go forth determined 

To find the ' least of these.?' 
For still the Saviour calls them, 

And looks across the world, 
And still he holds wide open 

The door into his fold. 

; How sweet 'twould be at evening, 

If you and I could say, 
Good Shepherd, we've been seeking 

The sheep that went astray ! 
Heart-sore and faint with hunger, 

We heard them making moan, 
And lo ! we come at nightfall 

Bearing them safely home." 



"I think when I read that sweet story of old, 

When Jesus was here among men, 
How he call'd little children as lambs to his fold — 

I should like to have been with him then. 
I wish that his hand had been placed on my head, 

That his arms had been thrown around me, 
And that I might have seen his kind look when he said, 

' Let the little ones come unto me.'" 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 30. 



" The richest boon beneth the skies, 
In which the heart alone can share, 
Is Christian love — this never dies ; 
Oh, that its power was everywhere." 

A continuation of our loving epistle to oar fellow 
students. 

We repeat what we have said in another part of 
this volume, and what we would repeat again and 
again, stereotype in golden capitals, sound out louder 
than seven thunders to the four winds, that the mere- 
ly intellectual light, educational, without light heaven- 
ly, saving grace, the more speedily will students build 
up the kingdom of darkness, death and damnation ! 
This is true of Yoltaire, Tom Paine, Hume, and others 
despising the day of grace. 

" There is no God, the fool in secret said — 
There is no God that rules in earth or sky : 
Tear off the band that folds the wretch's head, 
That God may burst upon his faithless eye. ,, 

A learned man, without the fear of God before his 
eyes and grace in his soul, has it in his power to wield 
a more powerful and fearful influence on the side of 
evil. " He that is not for me is against me, and he 
that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." 

146 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 147 

" What is the world without Christ ? What is human 
life without Christianity? What is knowledge with- 
out grace ? Nothing but a showy deception, nothing 
but a specious vanity! If the age needs any one 
thing above another, it is Christ in the schools. It 
needs sanctified learning. No one lias either a call or 
a right to teach the youth of the land, except those 
who are able to answer the question of the great 
Master, ' Lovest thou me ? ■ Only to those who can 
say yes to this searching question, has Christ ever given 
the commission, ' Feed my lambs.' An institution of 
learning, where the Christian life is not made to under- 
lie all knowledge, and held to be the principle that 
ought to control and direct all knowing, is nothing 
but a manufactory of brighter and sharper rogues than 
those which spring up from the vulgar crowd. Build 
up knowledge upon a bad heart, and you furnish its 
possessor only with a greater power of mischief. ' Edu- 
cated nature is educated vice.' A wicked youth is 
only the more dangerous for his smartness." 

Finally and lastly, Ave beseech you, dear fellow stu- 
dents, in the name of the Lord, touch not, taste not, 
handle not these unclean things. Have you Scott, 
Byron, Shakespeare, in your libraries or on your 
tables? burn them up, consign them to the flames. 
There is " death in the pot." Serpents coiled here, 
coiled there ! Have you Godey's novels, Harper's^ 
Peterson's, Arthur's, Demorest's u Fashion plates," of 
any kind, or comicals ? Burn them up, set fire to them. 
The cloven foot is concealed here — concealed there. 



148 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

Have you the novels of Dickens, of Beecher,* or any 
other sugar-coated poison ? Burn them up, bonfire 
them. Satan is intermingled, the spirit of the pit ! 
Sooner or later, they bite like a serpent — sting like an 
adder. Commit them to the flames. 

The good contained in any of these publications 
may be obtained elsewhere. And the good and beau- 
tiful things interspersed in those works of fiction are 
Satan's baits, sugared pills — that the poison of asps 
may be swallowed more readily — the gall and the worm- 
wood. Beware ! Burn them tcj? quick ! The ways 
of Satan are moveable, " thou canst not know them." 
But the end thereof is " bitter as wormwood, sharp as 
a two-edged sword." " Resist the devil and he will 
flee from you." Say, " get thee hence, Satan." 

" Every word has its own spirit, 
True or false, that never dies ; 
Every word man's lips have uttered 
Echoes ever in God's skies." 



* We beseech Prof. R. of Kentucky, to burn up that nest-egg of 
Satan he took from Brooklyn when here, and clasped to his bosom. 
It will hatch by-and-by, and bring forth a brood of little serpents or 
devils, to poison to death every student in the institution, and the 
whole community. " It's a present." No matter, burn it up, the 
devil is in it, burn up the accursed thing, commit it to the flames. 
Cleanse your hands from this filthiness — "wash you, make you 
clean." 




FALLEN ASLEEP BEADING THE BOOK, 

THE BOOK OF BOOKS. 

" I have a little book at home, it lias been mine 

for years ; 
There's many, many a leaf within that's blotted 

with my tears ; 
The covers are defaced, and e'en the gilding worn 

with age, 
And pencil-marks are scattered round on almost 

every page. 

" My father gave this book to me, oh ! many years 
ago, 

"When little of its real worth or import I could 
know ; 

It pleased my fancy and my pride ; I felt ex- 
tremely grand 

That I had such a pretty book to carry in my 
hand. 

149 



150 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



" But when the first great sorrow came — my loving 
father died, 

And broken-hearted, how I longed to lay down 
by his side — 

"Within this book I found that God would comfort 
and would bless, 

And be a heavenly Father to the poor and father- 
less. 

"When I am saddened or perplexed, with trials 
sore distressed, 
I read that he will surely ' give the heavy-laden 

rest ;' 
In every trouble of my life unto this Rock I flee, 
And sweet refreshing streams of love seem gush- 
ing out to me." 

The Bible the true Doctrine. — Our praying, 
singing, and Bible-reading will not help us heaven- 
ward, unless we are just between man and man. 
The Christian profession is nothing without the 
Christian life. Our religion, to change us radically, 
must descend into all commonest duties. It belongs 
as much to the shop as to the family, and as much 
to the family as to the sanctuary. No man can be 
a Christian who is not faithful in his common daily- 
life pursuits. The judge must administer justice 
from equity, and not from favor or the lure of bribes. 
The physician must regard the life and health of 
his patient above all other considerations. The 
merchant must deal justly, and the mechanic execute 
his work in all things faithfully. 




THE YEBSE-A-DAY SYSTEM. THE LITTLE 
ONES AT IT. 

" Give us tliis day our daily bread." 

" Bread of our souls ! whereon we feed ; 
True manna from on high !" 

Little folks, do you commit a verse from the 
Holy Book daily ; repeat it likewise at the table 
spread with heaven's bounties ? How many verses 
will this be in one year ? Three hundred and sixty-* 
five ? Yes, young friends, three hundred and sixty- 
five precious texts from the Sacred Volume, worth 
more to you, if hid in the heart, than so many gold 
eagles. Parents, what think you of this system ? 
The responsibility of its success rests on you. 

Says the Psalmist : " Thy word have I hid in my 
heart, that I sin not against thee." 

151 



A Savor of Life— A Savor of Death. 



PUBLIC AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBKARIES, 

11 Good books and papers live while we are dead 
Light on the darkened mind they shed, — 
Good seed they sow from age to age, 
Through all this mortal pilgrimage ; 
They nurse the germs of holy trust, 
They wake untired when we are dust." 

Good books and papers preach ; bad books and 
papers preach. One is a savor of life to life, the other 
of death to death ! One preaches salvation, the other 
damnation ! 

Look at this subject, friends ; turn it over, view it on 
every side ; peep into Sunday-school libraries, public 
reading-rooms — what do you see ? Scorpions, adders 
that sting, serpents that bite, Satanic transformations, 
the old serpent the devil, with cloven-foot concealed ! 

Do you ask what harm books and papers will do 
tinctured with romance and folly ? The same harm 
that personal intercourse would with the bad men who 
wrote them. "That a man is known by the company 
hd keeps," is an old proverb ; but it is no more true 
than that a man's character may be determined by 
knowing the books he reads. If a good book can't be 
read without making one better, a bad book cannot be 
read without making one worse. A person may be 
ruined by reading a single volume. Bad books are 

152 



A SAVOR OF LIFE — A SAVOR OF DEATII. 153 

like ardent spirits, they furnish neither aliment nor 
" medicine " — they are i% poison." Both intoxicate — • 
one the mind, the other the body. The thirst for each 
increases by being fed, and is never satisfied : both 
ruin — one the intellect, the other the health, and to- 
gether, the sGul. The makers and venders of each are 
equally guilty and equally corrupters of the communi- 
ty ; and the safeguard against each is the same total 
abstinence from all that intoxicates mind or body. 

The love of fiction is a growing appetite, and one 
which generally wastes more time than any other. It 
produces a distate for healthful mental food, and a dis- 
like to strengthening mental exercise. However good 
the tone of fiction may be, or its moral, the habit of 
craving fiction, once formed, cannot be prevented from 
gratifying itself with those novels and romances of the 
day, which may well be described as " Satanic litera- 
ture." The person who enters upon a course of novel- 
reading may be said to be rapidly unfitting himself for 
a noble and useful life. Then, all this reading is posi- 
tively worse than useless. We have no faith in the 
effect of teaching moral truth by fiction. No real 
knowledge is stored by it. After reading a thousand 
novels, the youth may be still unfurnished with the 
most necessary information. 

Nothing should find lodgment for a moment in our 
families, Sabbath-school libraries, reading-rooms, or 
on our centre-tables, but the salt of the earth, light, 
heavenly, intellectual and spiritual, life-giving, soul- 
kindling ; such reading as elevates, purifies, and sane- 



154 A SAVOR OF LIFE — A SAVOR OF DEATH. 

tifies. Family-books and papers should be of the 
purest kind; nothing should be introduced that tends 
in the least to pervert or corrupt the rising generation. 
It is truly painful to see in some reading-rooms popular 
works of fiction, novels, romances, and works positively 
infidel in their tendency. 

Such libraries and reading-rooms are a curse instead 
of a blessing to the community. Many a young man 
has been ruined for time and eternity by this corrupting 
literature. 

No book or periodical, whatever its merits in other 
respects, which takes the name of God in vain, uses it 
profanely or irreverently, which contains a profane 
oath, an impure or libidinous thought, or speaks lightly 
of the Word of God, should ever be allowed in a family 
or reading-room. A parent ought never to allow a 
fascinating writer to say that, behind the screen to the 
eye of a child, which he would not permit any one to 
breathe into the ear. 

Byron, Scott, Shakspeare, Dickens, Beecher, are, 
more or less, defiled by profane and impure allusions, 
dashes or exclamations, that offend the ear of modesty 
and virtue. What Christian father or mother would 
allow Shakspeare, if he were now alive, to associate 
with a blooming circle of sons and daughters, or read 
his plays, just as they now stand in the best editions? 
Is it possible for them to pass through the youthful 
mind and not leave a foul stain behind? Bead the 
" Personal Becollections of Charlotte Elizabeth," and 
see how narrowly she escaped the loss of both body 



A SAVOR OF LIFE — A SAVOR OF DEATII. 155 

and soul by poring over Shakspeare's corrupting 

fascinations. 

Are not editors and publishers rolling up a fearful 
account for facilitating the circulation of these rep 
now flooding and cursing the land? Unless some 
means can be devised to arrest this rapidly-augmenting 
currency of licentious and semi-infidel literature, its 
demoralizing effects every where manifest, we are lost ! 
lost ! Cease ? When will this curse of all curses cease, 
that poisons the fountains of mercy, eats out the life- 
blood of spiritual life and salvation, ushering millions 
into the gulf bottomless ? When will this death of 
deaths cease ? Never, till God in mercy opens the eyes 
of religious editors to see the enormity of their guilt in 
offering polluted bread upon his altar ! 

" And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? 
and if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil ? 
Offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be pleased 
with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of 
hosts."— Mai. i. 7-8. 

" O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye 
will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give 
glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will 
even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your 
blessings ; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye 
do not lay it to heart." — Mai. ii. 1-2. 

" I hate the work of them that turn aside. He that 
worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house : he that 
tellethlies shall not tarry in my sight," — Psal. ci. 6. 

Cast your eye, if you can, beloved brother and sister, 



156 A SAVOR OF LIFE — A SAVOR OF DEATH. 

into the reading-room at the Cooper Institute — the 
" Young Men's Christian Association," in New York, 
and into libraries of a similar character in every city, 
what do you see ? Some twenty, thirty, fifty, or more 
young men and women poring over what? The good, 
the solid, the virtuous, the pure, the elevating in these 
libraries, or the froth and scum of the pit ? — the veri- 
est trash Satan could concoct. The truth is, the taste 
of very many of the rising age is already formed for 
the devilish, and after the devilish they will go. 

Bonfire, burn up one-half of the books and periodi- 
cals in these public libraries and reading-rooms — more 
yet, two-thirds at least. God of mercy, truth and love, 
speed the day — hasten the burning, scorching, con- 
suming flames ! 



*to 



SOWING ? YES, WE ARE. 

"And whatsoever a ?nan soivcth, that shall he also reap." — Gal. vi. 7. 

" We are sowing, we are sowing, 
In eternity to reap ; 
Day by day are harvests growing 
For us after death's long sleep. 

*' We are sowing, we are sowing, 

Thoughts are seeds cast in a field ; 
Every act that we are doing, 
Every word its fruit shall yield/ 






S II 




THE MOTHER IMPARTING HEAVENLY WISDOM. 

Young friends, do you obey your mother cheerfully, 
heartily ? 

. " Come hither to thy mother, boy, 
Obey her teachings well ; 
For they will come to soothe thy heart, 
When sorrows round thee swell. 

''And when she's in her grass-grown grave, 
Hid from the light of day, 
Let not the world's deceitful wiles 
Sweep all thy faith away." 

(See article next page.) 
157 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 31. 



Make home a hive, where all beautiful feelings 

Cluster like bees, and their honey-dew bring 
Make it a temple of holy revealings, 

And love its bright angel with " shadowing wing." 

LITTLE MAKY KEEPING GOOD COMPANY. 

Beloved brother and sister, you may not only hinder 
dear Mary from coming to the blessed Redeemer for 
truth, but bar heaven's gate entirely and forever, by 
permitting her to mingle with evil associates. What 
company does this sweet child keep day in, day, out, 
lying down, rising up, going out, and coming in, at 
home and abroad ? — good, better, best ? — -the very best, 
and none other? Is she permitted, for a moment, to 
hold confab — talk familiarly, chit-chat, or prattle with 
persons of doubtful character or reputation ? — with any 
one on whom rests the slightest suspicion of unchastity 
or looseness of morals ? We trow not. We firmly 
believe it is your fervent wish and prayer that this little 
God-send should mingle or associate with those, and 
only with those, that are eminent for all that is pure, 
lovely, virtuous, heavenly — the salt of the earth ! 

As we say, and keep on saying, " Example kills, " 
example cures" — "Evil communications corrupt good 
manners." * 

The thought even of little Mary courting the society 
of the loose, the vicious, or those of a profligate ten- 

* Parents, beware of the street-school, it is Satan's ! 
158 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 159 

dency,would be terrible, revolting, agonizing! Shudder, 
tremble, stand aghast ! Yes, you would, dearest, at 
the mere suggestion of her spending one evening in 
company with those whom you did not know for cer- 
tainty their influence would be on the side of virtue 
and Gospel purity, elevating and sanctifying. 

" That no stain of sin may settle 
Like the dust on wayside daisies, % 
On her soul, to soil its sweetness. " 

You know, and we know, that the lodgment in her 
heart of a single thought, impure or lascivious, might 
terminate in the loss of her soul former! Are Chris- 
tian parents aware of this ? What ? when ? where ? 

" How can ye hope your sons will live, 
If ye, for flesh, a serpent give ? " 

When you attire Mary in a beautiful white dress, and 
after a little you see it all smutted up, dark with greasy 
spots here and there on it, how speedily you off with 
it, and put on something in its place, nice, plain, neat, 
and comely. You can't endure to see her go slip-shod, 
or with dirty, or spotted garments, a single moment. 
Are you equally cautious, beloved, in keeping her soul 
unspotted by the flesh? 

" Sophronius, a wise teacher of the people, did not 
allow his sons and daughters, when they were grown 
up, to associate with persons whose lives were not 
moral and pure. 

'Father, 5 said the gentle Eulalia, one day, when he 
had refused to permit her to go in company with her 
brother to visit the frivolous Lucinda, ' father, you 



ICO EDUCATING LITTLE MAIIY. 

must think that we are very weak and childish since 
yon are afraid that it would be dangerous to us in 
visiting Lucinda.' 

Without saying a word, the father took a coal from 
the hearth and handed it to his daughter. i It will 
not burn you, my child,' said he; 'only take it.' 

Eulalia took the coal, and behold, her tender, white 
hand was ,blaek, and, without thinking, she touched 
her white dress, and it was blackened. 

■ See,' said Eulalia, somewhat displeased, as she 
looked at her hands and dress, ' one cannot be careful 
enough when handling coals.' 

'Yes, truly,' said her father. 'You see, my child, 
that the coal, even though it did not burn you, has, 
nevertheless, blackened you. So is the company of 
immoral persons.' " 

Of all the snares to which children are exposed, we 
know of none more fatal, more ruinous than those 
w T hich spring from improper companions. The Word 
of God expressly forbids associating with evil com- 
panions. " Enter not into the path of the wicked, and 
go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by 
it, turn from it, and pass away." "If sinners entice 
thee, consent thou not. My son, walk not thou in the 
way with them ; refrain thy foot from their path." 
" Be not equally yoked together with unbelievers ; for 
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteous- 
ness ? and what communion hath light with darkness ? " 
" Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel 
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor 



EDUCATING LITTLE MAltY. 1G1 

sitteth in the seat of the scornful." " A companion 
of fools shall be destroyed." 

The very atmosphere of the unchaste or vicious is 
infectious, malaria, more to be feared than the deadly 
sirocco, or a " bear robbed of her whelps." Run ! — 
hasten ! — escape for your life ! Run ! 

Now for the sequel or application : Is not reading 
an author keeping company with that author ? whether 
he be virtuous or vicious — pure in thought or impure ? 
"As is the tree, so is the fruit." " Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " " Out of the 
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." " Can 
a man take fire in his bossm, and his clothes not be 
burned ? " 

Books and papers have souls : they think, speak, and 
act, for evil or for good. A bad book or paper is more 
dangerous than a bad man or a bad woman, a bad boy 
or a bad girl. 

Every book, every paper, has a soul, breathing a 
spirit good or bad. It is the soul of its author, and 
w T hen spread over the pages of the book, that soul acts 
upon its readers as truly as when acting directly. 

There is an atmosphere surrounding every human 
body which naturally affects every one who comes 
within its limits. There is something analogous to this 
with regard to a human spirit. If you continue long 
within the atmosphere, can you help being infected? 
The contagion spreads from soul to soul. The least 
spot on a beautiful white robe mars its beauty sadly. 
4 We are known by the company we keep." 



162 EDUCATING LITTLE MART. 

11 Just as the broadest rivers run 
From small and distant springs, 
• The greatest crimes that men have done 

Have grown from little things." 

Do parents take this into due consideration when 
they permit their sons and daughters to por£ over em- 
enations issuing from hearts as black as jet ? 

Where is there a writer of fiction — sensational, that 
is not more or less tinctured with impurity of thought, 
and whose virtue is questionable ? The writers of these 
love-stories and fictitious tales — novels and romances, 
who are they ? With few exceptions they are known 
to be vile, lax in principle — lax in life. Shun their 
writings as you would a serpent — a poisonous reptile. 

In reading these infected authors we keep them 
company — inhale their very breath, unconsciously — 
though it be as morally corrupting and polluting as a 
brothel — a house of prostitution! — or hot-bed of 
lewdness ! 

There is far more danger, indeed, of becoming assim- 
ilated to the spirit of a corrupt author by perusing his 
works than by personal association.* 



* Grace in the soul eradicate Satan — the relish for the deadly 
upas? Nothing else — grace on grace. Impart the grace then! — the 
Holy Spirit helping, dictating. 

Is little Mary's soul renewed in spirit, soul-kin dlingly ? How 
then ? love fiction ? Sooner clasp a serpent to her bosom ! Here is 
safe-guard from the plague — the leprosy of the age. Let the dear 
child continue to wash and be clean in the open fountain for sin and 
uncleanness, and Satan finds no lodgment. 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 163 

To clioose between two evils, you prefer, doubtless, 
to see this dear child sit side by side with a loose, un- 
principled character, then to place in her hands the 
writings of this same profligate ? On seeing his gross 
visage — obscene — the picture of a serpent — she would 
rise up, run^ escape for her life ! — screamingly ! 

In the other case she might not see the serpent coiled 
or concealed in the grass till the fatal, forked-tongue, 
darted forth ! Or if seen in comely form in the garb 
of pleasure, with fair face and flattering lips ! — Satan 
transformed ! 

" Far off the road which leads to death 

Looks beautiful and fair ! " 
p 

You are, we venture to say, beloved, guarding this 
precious little jewel, as the apple of the eye, against 
the first approach of evil — the least particle of contam- 
inating influence, folding her in the very bosom of the 
Saviour's love. 

" If he lay His hand on the children, 
My heart will be lighter, I know 
For a blessing forever and ever 
Will follow them as they go." 

Nothing short of this continued, steadfast, Bible 
discipline will meet the emergencies of the case. This 
unwavering, ceaseless diligence in the path of duty and 
holy living is what God indicates in the precept, 
" Train up a child in the way it should go, and when 
it is old it will not depart from it." 




HERE THEY ARE, FATHER, AND MOTHER, AND THE 
SWEET LITTLE ONES. 

These parents united in family discipline harmoniously ? 
Unquestionably ; else, how clock-work, heaven in the do- 
mestic circle ? What father says, mother says ; what 
mother says, father says. When father corrects the little 
ones for disobedience, the mother coincides heartily, joy- 
fully — says, " So let it be." And when mother applies the 
rod of chastisement when it ought to be applied, does 
father interfere, say, " Spare the rod ?" Not for a thousand 
worlds ! He knows it would cause friction, and may-be the 
ruin of the child. Here lies one grand secret of success 
in household training. Without this united, harmonious 
union, where is hope of good family government, salva- 
tion ? 

164 




THE BIBLE IN HOUSEHOLD DUTY— THE 
FAMILY CIRCLE. 

" Tliis Book of books I'd rather own 

Than all the gold or gems 
That e'er in monarchs' coffers shone — 

Than all their diadems : 
Nay, were the seas one chrysolite, 

The earth a golden ball, , 
And diadems all the stars of night, 

This book were worth them all. 

" Yes, yes, this blessed book is worth 
All else to mortals given ; 
For what are all the joys of earth 

Compared to joys of heaven ? 
This is the guide our Father gave 

To lead to realms of day — 
A star whose lustre gilds the grave— 
' The light, the life, the way/ " 
165 




*** 

& 

THE BIBLE AND SABBATH SCHOOL 
TEACHEES. 

" Oh speed thee, Christian, on thy way, 
And to thy armor cling ; 
With girded loins the call obey 
That grace and mercy bring." 

Oue text-book, the basis of all our attempts to 
instruct the rising age committed to our care, should 
be the Bible. This book, of all others, is the most 
lastingly interesting to children. Were it not the 
depository of all-saving truth, still there would be 
no book to compare with it in power to arrest and 
retain the attention of the young. 

A very interesting and pious writer of the Sunday 
School Union remarks thus : 

" Every Sunday-school teacher, however un- 
learned in the knowledge of this world, should be 
well versed in Scripture truth, and be a careful 
student of his Bible. 'To the law and the testi- 
mony' should be his appeal for the truth of every 
sentiment.' " 16G 




THE FAMILY GROUP. 



The family circle is God's, blessed ordinance, and is the 
sweetest, the happiest, and the most hallowed spot on 
earth. It is the nursery of affection, of friendship, and of 
virtue. 

167 




HINTS TO PARENTS— NO. VII. 



BAD FOLKS. 



CHILDREN AT HOME, CHILDREN ABROAD. 



Teach your children to behave well at home, po 
litely, modestly, obediently — to know when to speak 
and how to speak — ere you take them abroad. 

Never, dear parents, impose upon your neighbors or 

108 



HINTS TO PARENTS. 169 

friends with your unruly, self-willed, disobedient chil- 
dren, as you value your reputation, the peace, safety, 
good wishes and happiness of those around you, and 
the best interests of the community. What imposi- 
tion greater could you possibly inflict on your friends ? 
It's a bare-faced, outstanding violation of the golden 
rule principle ! It's trampling, ungenerously, on good 
feeling, friendship, hospitality, and kindred affection. 

We have known some parents make a long visit to 
the house of some friend or relative, with rude, ill- 
mannered, impudent, boisterous, outlandish urchins, 
disturbing the peace, quietness, and happiness of every 
one in their reach, ransacking every nook and corner 
of the house, turning and overturning ! A bear 
robbed of her whelps could scarcely be more dreadful 
or annoying. Children are imitative beings, and good 
children are frequently spoiled or greatly injured by 
the society of wicked associations. " Evil communi- 
cations corrupt good manners." " One sinner," 
though a little sinner, " destroyeth much good." 

Parents that have any just or due appreciation of 
the importance of training their offspring for God, in 
the way they should go, would rather see a serpent, a 
stinging adder, yes, the plague itself, enter their dwell- 
ing than these reckless, idolized, disobedient intruders. 
(See engraving.) 

Parent, we beseech you, as you value friendship, 
kindness, hospitality, brotherly love, peace, harmony, 



170 BEAR AND FORBEAR. 

good will, eternal life, not to impose on good sense 
and good nature. How glad soever your friends may 
be to see you and entertain you hospitably, yet their 
rejoicing will be tenfold when you depart. Be wise 
to-day. Be wise for yourself, your children, your 
friends, for time, for eternity. 

Train up your little ones early for God, in the way 
they should go, in strict obedience, in the path of 
duty, sobriety, in all that is lovely and praiseworthy. 
Make them polished stones, living examples of loveli- 
ness, purity, and consistency, olive plants around 
your table. Then their appearance every where will 
be hailed gladly, thankfully, joyfully. Otherwise, 
keep them at home till they learn good manners. 

" it is a sad'ning sight, 
When children go astray, 
Forsaking what is good and right, 
To walk in Satan's way." 



BEAU AND FORBEAR. 

If we would have life move on smoothly, we must 
learn to bear and forbear. We must indulge the 
friend we love in the little peculiarities of saying and 
doing things which may be important to him, but of 
little moment to us. Like children, we must suffer 
each one to build his play house in his own way, and 
not quarrel with him because he does not think our 
way the best. 




GATHERING NUTS. 

See that little girl holding her hat for the nuts as her 
brother gathers them ? Is she not beautiful ? Does not 
her whole countenance indicate modesty and purity. 

171 



The Improvement ; or, Practical Application.— No. 1. 



11 Some will hate thee, some will love thee, 
Some will flatter, so:ne will slight ; 
Cease from man, and look above thee, 
Trust in God, and do the right." 

Beloved friends, now for the application — the con- 
sequences — the results of this strategetic movement of 
Satan — of this corrupt, vitiated, mental taste. To what 
does it lead ? 

1. To imbecility and puerility in thought, word, and 
action. It makes dunces of little folks, and great folks 
dolts. It makes them stupid, weak, silly, foolish, and 
vain. 

Dr. Arnold says truly : u Childishness in boys even 
of good ability, seems to be a growing fault, and I do 
not know what to ascribe it to except to the great num- 
ber of exciting books of amusement. The habit is to 
the mind what indulgence in intoxicating drinks is to 
the body. In both cases there is a constant craving 
for excitement, and for an excitement which unfits the 
faculties and draws away the affections from duty, from 
heaven, and from God." 

Who questions this fact ? Look abroad, and see the 
fearful, alarming deterioration of the rising age every 
where ! 

2. You see children that are permitted to read silly, 

nonsensical things — not only become silly, foolish, non- 
172 



THE IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 173 

sensical, and duncified, but uncouth, rude, and boister- 
ous in their sports. They take great delight in fun, 
frolic, rompings, rfmd vulgar merriment, monkeyish 
behavior ! And editors and ministers, we find, who go 
in for this light, foolish and trashy reading, encourage 
these sportive tricks in children — this low wit, rude 
uncouthness — drollery, buffoonery, and monkeyisms. 
Shameful ! 

The mind of youth, yet in the tender and plastic 
state, receives evil impressions readily, and permits 
them to be moulded into a form which time cannot 
erase. There is no subject, therefore, to which parents 
should give greater attention than to the character of the 
reading matter that they introduce into their homes. 

3. It retards education, every branch of it. This 
fact is shown clearly in our affectionate appeal to stu- 
dents, page 

The knowledge stored away in the minds of novel- 
readers is little more than a huge, unsightly mass of 
errors. The memory, having little or nothing to do, 
must wear out in its own indolence. 

4. It weakens the judgment, the understanding, the 
perceptive faculties. 

5. It corrupts the imagination — bewilders it. It be- 
comes wild, extravagant, like a ship at sea in a storm, 
without compass or helm. A distorted imagination 
unfits human beings to live, think, and act, in this com- 
mon-sense matter-of-fact world of ours. 

6. It creates a distaste for solid and useful reading. 
Men and women do not like to go from the splendid 



174 THE IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 

palaces of kings — from the soft and lascivious saloons 
and drawing-rooms of dukes and counts into the com- 
mon walks of life — no, they would* rather luxuriate 
amid the splendid castles and enchanted scenes of the 
novel-writer ! 

7. The expenditure is wicked — heaven-daring. One 
novel-reading Miss boasts of having paid $70 in one 
year on fiction, including "fashion-plates." And 
whose money was this, expended to gratify a perverted 
or vitiated taste ? Is this laying up treasure in heaven 
with God's money, or heaping fuel to feed the flames 
of woe eternal? And think you, beloved brother and 
sister, that this same lavisher of God's bounty, on lust, 
presumes to call herself a disciple of the Lord Jesus 
Christ ? Permit us to say here, our exhortive warfare in 
these pages is not to the ungodly, the impenitent, or to 
outsiders — but the two-edged sword of God's truth is 
aimed exclusively to those in the Church having a name 
to live and are dead — whose glory is their shame — 
— who mind earthly things — " enemies of the cross of 
Christ."— Phil. iii. 18-19. 

8. Consider the time lost ! — worse than lost ! " That 
stuff that life is made of, and which, when lost, is never 
lost alone, because it carries souls upon its wings ! 
What is time? Ask death-beds; the queen of Eng- 
land, who cried in her expiring moments, " millions ! 
millions ! for an inch of time ! " 

" I asked a spirit lost — but, oh ! the shriek 
That pierced my soul ! I shudder while I speak ! 
It cried, ' A particle ! a speck ! a mite 
Of endless years, duration infinite ! " 



TIIE IMPROVEMENT J -GR PRACTICAL AITLICATION. 175 

9. It grieves the Holy Spirit, hardens the heart, 
sears the conscience, as we have already said. 

Here are badbcws, stand ingbefore you, readers. How 
came they so? Were their mental tastes formed on 
Bible truths or on Satan's baits? 



LITTLK FOLKS TRAINED IX THE RIGHT WAY. 

A child, trained from infancy in the fear and love of 
God, is ready to " serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all 
humility of mind," in any work to which he is called, 
saying: "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God," in a 
meek, heavenly spirit — " the meekness and gentleness 
of Christ ; " and as he goes forward, from duty to 
duty, will be able to say with David : " My soul is as 
a weaned child:" "I delight to do Thy will, O my 
God ! " 

" Can other themes our hearts engage, 

And meaner things our thoughts employ ? 
Why make the glittering things of earth 
Our greatest good, our chiefest joy ? " 




ICKED BOYS. 



Wicked ? who doubts it ? Look at them. A wicked 
boy or girl can not be wicked long without being 
known. " Be sure your sin will find you out." Guilt 
shows itself in every thought, word, and deed, and is 
sure to bring disgrace, shame, and misery. 

Boys and girls are known by their looks and the 
company they keep. 

176 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 2. 



'* Onward ! while a wrong remains 
To be conquer'd by the right; 
Action is the pulpit's part : 
Forward ! thou awakening nation, 
Action is the people's part ! " 

10. These sugared pills, or Satanic transformations, 
lead people to talk religion and talk nonsense at the 
same time and in the same breath — mix up things 
solemn and heavenly with things facetious — intermingle 
the atoning blood of the Lamb— grace, hope, joy, life 
eternal — things momentous, bearing directly on the 
welfare of souls immortal, with things " light as air," 
trifling, frivolous, foolish, nonsensical, without the 
slightest particle of holy unction, reverence, or godly 
fear!- What is this but offering strange fire? — sacri- 
lege ! — blasphemy ! 

This you often see and hear from the Plymouth pul- 
pit ! Consequently everything pure, beautiful, lovely, 
and truthful, is poisoned — turned to vinegar, gall, and 
wormwood ! 

Is it not wonderful, grace, mercy, superabounding, 
that the Almighty does not, in His hot displeasure, 
send fire from heaven and burn up this man alive, as 
he did " Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire 
on God's altar?"— Lev. x. 1, 2, 3. 

Look put, friends ! we live in a wondrous age. " If 
there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of 

177 



178 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, . . . thou 
shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or 
dreamer of dreams ; for the Lord your God proveth 
you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with 
all your heart and with all your soul." — Deut. xiii. 1-3. 
And this mixing up things — Christ and Belial — is 
spreading like wild-fire through the length and breadth 
of the land ! 

" Just God ! and these are they 
Who minister at Thy altar ! 

Men, who their hands with prayer and blessing lay 
On Israel's Ark of light ! " 

Friends, are not the days spoken of in 2 Peter, chap, 
ii, at our very doors ? 

Also in chap. iii. 7, he says : " That there shall come 
in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
and saying, where is the promise of his coming, for 
since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they 
were from the beginning of creation." The scoffers 
have come, and when they appear "the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of ungodly men " is at hand. 




RUINS OF TYRE. 



Little readers and great readers, what proved the utter 
destruction of this once great and beautiful city — sin? 
Nothing else. God's wrath was visited upon it for the 
same reason that it was upon Sodom and the cities of the 
plain ; the Canaanites, whose cup of iniquity was full ; and 
upon Babylon the great, now no more forever ! " The day 
of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is lifted 



up; 



and he shall be brought low." Isa. ii. 12. 



Old Tyre withstood the mighty Assyrian power five 
years. It afterward held out thirteen years against Neb- 
uchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and was at length taken. 
There are now no signs of the ancient city ; and as it is a 
sandy shore, the face of everything is altered, and the 
great aqueduct is in many parts almost buried in the sand. 
Thus lias been fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel, 

179 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 3. 

M How fond is man, 
Dressed in a little brief authority, 
To play fantastic tricks before high heaven !'" 

11. This mock sentimentalism leads to insipidity — 
idle talk, frothy, vain, empty, unprofitable. Enter a 
social circle — a company of religious novel-readers — 
what do you hear ? Good common-sense ? Rationality, 
edifying conversation — instructive, administering grace 
to the hearers ? Anything pertaining to the heavenly, 
soul-kindling, the higher Christian walks, glory eter- 
nal — or tittle-tattle, senseless gabble, cackling, trip- 
hammer nonsense ? Instance the author of " Nor- 
wood " — the " New York Ledger's " regular contribu- 
tor. The man has been so long and so thoroughly 
saturated with fiction and frivolity that it ekes out at 
every pore in the pulpit and out of it. His whole 
contour, indeed every moving muscle bear visible 
marks of the garrulous or of the buffoon ! Were talents 
and learning ever more wickedly and shamefully dese- 
crated or sacrificed to baser purposes ? 

" Familiarity breeds contempt," is a truthful say- 
ing, and it gains strength as that familiarity is brought 
about by a trifling sociability. It always sinks one on 
a level or below those around us. The world will say : 
" How much better is he than we are ? " 

Men generally, in a Christian community, believe 
that this declaration of God: "That every idle word 

180 



IMPROVEMENT J OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 181 

that men shall speak they shall give account there- 
of in the day of judgment," is true, and yet, at 
the same time, they do not believe it ; for there is no 
fear induced, no love fostered, as is perfectly evident 
from the words we hear. 

How do people generally talk when they get to- 
gether? Sensibly? to mutual improvement? to the 
improvement of the heart and mind ? Is the mind 
generally furnished with that of which it w T ill be plea- 
sant and profitable to reflect afterwards ? Are the 
affections called into exercise, purified, and strength- 
ened ? If these things are not the result of our inter- 
course with our fellow-creatures, it is not a rational 
intercourse, it is not sensible, and we are, by it, brought 
under condemnation. But, notwithstanding this fear- 
ful thought, is not this a small-talking age? Yes. It 
is an age, in which, socially, there is much talk, but, 
at the same time, very little is said ; or, in other words, 
it is an age in which there are a great many words 
spoken, but which convey a very few ideas ; an age in 
which language, that great gift of God to man, to dis- 
tinguish him from the mere animal, has been turned 
out of its proper course, and, instead of being the 
channel for the conveying of thought, it has become a 
gas- pipe to carry off the vapor of volatile brains. Yes, 
an age in which God's great gift has become the sport 
of clowns and buffoons ; an age in which God and 
eternity are driven from the social circle because- of 
the frothings of jesters and 'foolish talkers. To say 
nothing of the awful guilt of this age, because of its 



182 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

open violation of the Lord's day, its drunkenness and 
gluttony, its lewdness, covetousness, infidelity, and 
blasphemy, is it not an age which has come under an 
awful curse because of its small-talk — that more re- 
fined but just as sure way of coming under condemna- 
tion ? More refined way ? Yes, only because men 
have made it so conventionally. The man drunk is 
called a brute, at least for the time. The man cursing 
God is pronounced, at least so far, a bad man. But 
the jester, the small-talker, is not only tolerated, but 
welcomed. Thus men, conventionally, have refined 
his sin. But not so God. His judgment is pronounced, 
and it is just as sure as the curse of the adulterer and 
the murderer. God makes very little difference, if any, 
between the man who murders his fellow-creatures and 
the man who murders his time — that precious gift to 
man, in which he may get ready for eternity. God 
makes very little difference, if any, between the man 
who prostitutes his person and the one who prostitutes 
his talents, subjecting his mind, which is capable 
of vieing with ever-thinking angels, to the studying of 
those things which serve to laugh off and kill the hour. 
But is it not so, that men, conventionally, have refined 
this sin ? Do not men not only tolerate, but welcome 
the jester? Oh, the writhing that shall be in God's 
judging-day because of this one sin? Oh, the dark- 
ness that shall be around God's pavilion, when the 
livers of the nineteenth of the Christian centuries 
shall come up there to be judged for this one sin ! to 
say nothing of the mountains of transgressions, and 



IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 183 

the rivers of woe-gurgling blood, which this century 
has caused to flow and be piled up. To say nothing 
of these, heaven, earth, and hell may well tremble with 
one universal groan. Oh, the condemnation of men 
called Christians, because of this one sin ! 

" Just God and holy ! is that church which lends 
Strength to the spoiler, Thine ! " 

" Foolish talking and jesting " stand in the same 
cluster with " filthiness, fornication, and all unclean- 
ness," as if they belonged to the same family. 

" 'Tis pitiful 
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul." 

If ever the arch-deceiver is transformed into an angel 
of light, it is when professing Christians talk nonsense, 
and laugh at nonsense. 

" There is nothing," says Wilberforce Richmond, 
"so opposed to religion — to the mind of Christ — as 
levity and trifling. It will keep you back more than 
anything. Take my solemn warning. I speak from 
my own experience. You will never be a consistent 
Christian, and you will never grow in grace, if you in- 
dulge in habitual trifling conversation. It is not like 
the mind of Christ." 

" He that negotiates between God and man, 
As God's ambassador, the grand concerns 
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware 
Of lightness in his speech." 

Note. — Here is a bad girl, bad as she can cleverly 
be — disobedient, foolish, and vain. How came she so ? 
On what was her mental taste formed ? the Bible ? 
Judge ye ! (See opposite page). 



Urn bu 




THE BAD GIRL. 



SHE DOES JUST AS SHE TLEASES, 

Has her own way in every thing. Her parents seem 
to have lost all control over her — if they ever had 
any. Her will is her own. Self rules the day. She 
goes out when she pleases, comes in when she pleases ; 
chooses what books, papers, or company she pleases ; 

184 



THE BAD GIRL. 185 

runs about in stores, shops, houses, and the street 
school when she pleases ; dresses as she pleases ; grati- 
fies her passions and appetites when she pleases ; plays, 
gads, and gabbles about on the Sabbath, when she 
pleases ; she comes to the table and family prayers 
when she pleases, and staj^s away when she pleases ; 
obeys and disobeys when she pleases. Her will is her 
own, 6elf the governing principle, the controlling 
power ! Notice her guilty look in the engraving ! 

Parent, is this the way you train up your little 
daughter ? Have you no misgivings % no fears? 

" The rod and reproof give wisdom ; but a child 
left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." Pro v. 
xxix. 15. 

If spring puts forth no blossoms, in summer there 
will be no beauty, and in autumn no fruit. So if 
youth be trifled away without improvement, riper 
years will be contemptible, and old age miserable. 

" Now is the time each child should try, 

In life's bright sunny morn, 
To lay rich stores of knowledge by. 

Ere wintry age comes on. 
'Tis sweet, oh sweet, to know, 

If we our time improve, 
"We shall be happy here below, 

And dwell in heaven above." 



No worse sign of a child's character can appear than 
a readiness to speak lightly of a parent's authority. 




SEE THIS MOTHER, LITTLE FOLKS AND GREAT FOLKS. 

What is she doing ? Imparting light heavenly to this 
child of hers — telling him about Jesus, who shed his pre- 
cious blood on Calvary to save sinners, little sinners and 
great sinners — " the way, the truth, the life ?" Beautiful, 
ain't it ? Too soon ? No, it ain't, mother. You should 
have commenced this blessed work at the earliest intellec- 
tual dawning, even before this little one of yours could 
utter a single syllable audibly. Begin where God begins. 
Let your smiles preach, your eyes, your inward thought, 
every muscle. 

We say, and keep on saying, the Holy Spirit is waiting 
to be gracious, ready always to apply the truth, take the 
things that belong to Christ and show them even to the 
littlest of the little ones. The Spirit and the Bride say to 
the little folks, " Come." And let every one that heareth 
say to them, " Come." 

The true ideal of Christian culture is — the salvation of 
childhood. 18G 



Improvement; or, Practical Results.— No. 4. 

LYING AND THIEVING. 
11 Thou shall not steal." 

12. This religious nonsense, in the form of novels 
and romances, thrown upon the public so freely by 
professing Christian editors and ministers, leads to 
lying or falsehood. Lies beget lies. One liar makes 
other liars — not a few. The man that writes lies, 
preaches lies, publishes lies, puffs lies — sells and reads 
lies What next ? Steal, rob, cut your throat ? Look 
out, friends ! 

The man that tells lies — makes a business of it — is 
he any too good to steal your purse, rob you in the 
highway ? See to it that your purse-strings are tight- 
ened — your money-till well secured, your front-door 
locked and barred firmly. 

Merchants, have you novel-reading clerks ? Beware ! 
— look well to your safes ! 

Young men that have their minds vitiated, and their 
moral sensibilities perverted by novels, will not en- 
deavor to procure wealth in the ordinary way, by labor 
and patience ; this is too slow a process to satisfy the 
fevered and excited mind. Fortune must he made at 
once. It drives young men to the gambling-table, the 
theatre, the intoxicating bowl, and to the house of 
ill-fame. 

187 



188 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

We have become a nation of liars ! Most people 
love to read and to hear lies quite as well as others like 
to write and to utter them. Indeed, the one is a pretty 
fair guage of the other. The market and the supply 
of lies are economically adjusted. 

The public will have lies, and the man who must get 
his bread and butter by writing, must have no scruples 
about lying. One of the most popular writers of a 
New York journal said pathetically : " I detest this 
coloring of the truth, this eternal exaggeration of lying; 
but the people will have it, and I must furnish it or 
starve." Another popular writer, on recovering from 
a dangerous illness, told his physician that he should 
not be able to pay him until he had got his returns 
from furnishing the public another of his lucrative 
stories. That is, a pack of lies in the form of novels, 
romances, silly love-tales, to curse the rising age, 
pushed into public favor, by whom ? Can you guess, 
dear reader ? Tell it not, write it not — publish it not. 
Hush! 

"To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to 
the Lord than sacrifice." 

" Do justice — 'tis thy God's command, 
The mandate of thy King ; 
Be prompt in rendering dues to all, 
And let no fraud, spot, great or small, 
Unto thy conscience cling." 




STEAL, LITTLE FOLKS OR GREAT FOLKS? 
Not a pin, a pear, a peach, a plum. 

" On the goods that are not thine, 
Do not dare to lay thy finger ; 
On thy neighbor's better things, 
Let no wistful glances linger. 1 ' 

A boy or girl who will steal an apple, a pear, or bou 
quet, will doubtless, by and by, steal other things and 
greater things. 

189 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.- No- 5. 



Lying and Thieving — Continued. 

" Basest and meanest of all sins is theft ; 
Concealment, peculation, breach of trust, 
To practice it on others." 

Such writers, in the pulpit or out of it, are considered 
smart. They wake up our imaginations, rouse our 
sympathies, play charmingly upon our passions, and 
we pay them well for it. 

The public hankering for something extraordinary, 
startling, highly-colored, and exaggerated, has crept into 
our churches, invaded the pews, and, to some extent, 
given laws to the pulpit. There is now a great demand 
for smart preachers. The question is not whether a 
preacher is pious, prayerful, faithful, sound in faith, 
and a winner of souls — one who rightly divides the 
"Word of truth, and gives to every man his portion in 
due season — all this is behind the times, and old fogy. 
Is he smart ? That's the question. Does he stretch 
the india-rubber to its utmost tension, and hammer out 
the precious grain of gold so thin that it has but one 
side? Can he do a splendid business on a small capi- 
tal? Does he sparkle well? Oh, then, he is an angel 
standing in the sun ! We must have him at any price. 
What's the use of going to the theatre when we can 
have what we want at church ? But will he also, as 

190 



IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 191 

occasion may require, let off good round whoppers; 
thumping stories, and rouse us all up ? Then he is the 
man for us. He will fill the house, sell the pews, 
youthfulize the congregation, and make us a good 
speculation. What matters his tenets, what he believes, 
so long as he is popular ? " Suppose he does fraternize 
error, false doctrines, universalisms, unitarianisms, 
Parkerisms, spiritisms, free-loveisms, his popularity will 
over-ride it all, and he will be number-one on all 
public occasions." 

Friends of salvation, truth and love, was there ever 
a climacteric of deviltry more climacteric or devilish ? 
And yet the picture is faintly drawn ; we have merely 
hinted of what Satan is doing in this direction. 

" Paid hypocrites, who turn 
Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book 
Of those high words of truth, which search and burn 
In warning and rebuke. " 

Well did our blessed Saviour say, as he did to a 
class or a clique not very dissimilar: " Wo to you, ye 
blind guides. 

a ¥o unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; 
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
platter, but within they are full of extortion and 
excess. 

" Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is 
within the cup and platter, that the outside of them 
may be clean also. 

" Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for 
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed ap- 



192 IMPEOVEMENT J OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

pear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead 
men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 

" Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto 
men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, How can ye 
escape the damnation of hell ? ? — Matt, xxiii. 25, 33. 

"The devil has had along and extensive experience. 
If there has ever been a time in which he succeeded, 
this is that time. He never employed his skill at gal- 
vanizing and sugar-coating hypocrites more than at 
this day ; and never before were men and women more 
willing to have it done than now. It seems there is an 
ambition to excel in wickedness. No character is so 
hateful to God as that of a garnished hypocrite. This 
species of hypocrisy is a blandly smiling at sin — an 
unbounded charity — a weak, religious sentimentalism 
— orthodox faith, but the heart of a Judas." 

We live in an age in which men are sought after, 
who possess a good share of talent and shrewdness. 
Too many are mere hirelings, who care but little whe- 
ther the devil gets the sheep or not, only so that they 
get the place and the fleece, betraying the Son of God ! 
If one society does not pamper their pride, they go to 
a more formal one for better pay. In wickedness, they 
exceed Baalam — " who loved the wages of unrighte- 
ousness " — because they are hired to bless, and they 
curse instead. 




ELIJAH FED BY THE KAVENS. 

xvii. 5-6. 

Elijah was a good man, perfect in his generation ; and, like 
Enoch and Noah, he " walked with Grocl," and " God took him." 

Young folks, what think you — do you suppose 
the Lord would have sent Elijah food, night and 
morning, by these ravenous birds, if he had been 
wicked, a false prophet, man-fearing or time-serving 
— a wolf in sheep's clothing? one that bowed to 
conservative, popular views, connived at sin, pro- 
phesied smooth things, healed slightly, cried, 
" Peace, peace," when there was no peace ? Never, 
never. 

Nor would He have translated him, taken him to 
glory in a " chariot of fire." See 2 Kings, ii. 

" God, give us men. A time like this demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands : 

Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; 

Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
Men who have honor — men who will not lie." 
193 



Improvement; or, Practical Results.— No. 6. 



COWARDICE AND WORLDLY POLICY. 

" Oh, blessed is he who. can divine, 
Where real right doth lie, 
And dares to take the side where seems 
Wrong to man's blinded eye." 

13. It tends to worldly policy and worldly expedi- 
ency, compromising sin and Satan. 

14. Make cowards of folks, little and big, base, pusil- 
animously ? Invariably ? Stand the fire ? Nay, they 
skulk — skulk here, skulk there — dodge here, dodge 
there. " The children of Ephraim, being armed, and 
carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." — 
Psal. xxxvii. 9.' 

" Ephraim is a cake not turned. 

" Strangers have devoured his strength, and he 
knoweth it not ; yea, gray hairs are here and there 
upon him, yet he knoweth not. 

" And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and 
they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him 
for all this. 

" When they shall go, I will spread my net upon 
them, I will bring them down as the fowl of the hea- 
ven : I will chastise them as their congregation hath 
heard. 

Wo unto them, for they have fled from me : destruc- 
tion unto them, because they have transgressed against 

194 



IMTOOVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 195 

rne ; though I have redeemed them, yet they have 
spoken lies against me." — Ilosea vii. 13. 

Could there be a truer or more graphic picture of 
the present pulpit ministrations in many quarters? 
Look here, look there, see ye one, beloved, on the 
watch-tower of Zion that goes in for hotchpotch read- 
ing — novels and romances — the fiction of the day, that 
has any back -bone, soul-kindling, fire pentecostal, fire 
owfire, moral courage, holy boldness to stem the tide 
of popular iniquity, storm the fort of Satan, carry a 
holy warfare to the very heart of the enemy's country, 
come life, coma death ? Where? O where ? Do they 
not, to a man, bow, more or less, to the popular, conser- 
vative, heal slightly, daub with untempered mortar, 
confer with flesh and blood, cry " peace, peace," when 
there is no peace ? 

The spirit of the holy prophets and apostles, and of 
the Lord Jesus, is scarcely heard of or seen. 

" The veriest coward upon earth 

Is he who fears the world's opinion ; 
Who acts with reference to its will, 

His conscience swayed by its dominion. " 

Sin is winked at, covered, passed over. "What now ? 
Prosper? God says not, and we believe God, what He 
says. 

The doctrine of worldly expediency and compromise 
is, of all sins, the most destructive, soul-ruinous, to 
both church and State. And at no sin does God thun- 
der anathemas more terribly ! Instance the hypocriti- 
cal and time-serving Scribes and Pharisees. Turn, if 



196 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

you please, to Matt. 23 — read the entire chapter. It 
speaks for itself, precisely what we speak, louder and 
still louder in the ears of those to whom w T e are now 
speaking in love, in humble, prayerful entreaty. 

What ! serve the Lord as opportunity offers, and 
Satan mpre generally and heartily, for the loaves and 
fishes % True ? This moment, as Ave now move our 
pen, and the half is not told. 

" Torture the pages of the hallowed Bible 

To sanction crime, and robbery, and blood, 
And in oppression's hateful service libel 
Both man and God . ' ' 

Profess holiness ? Indeed ! What is holiness with- 
out God in it, the life that now is — without moral 
courage, holy boldness to obey God, stem the tide of 
incoming iniquity, ready to swallow us alive ? What 
kind of holiness is that, that lets wolves into God's 
enclosures, carry off and devour the sheep and dear 
lambs of the flock without a single warning — uplifted 
voice — " Wolf, w r olf ! — stop the thief! kill the wolf! " 

What saith our blessed Lord : 

" I am the good shepherd : the good shepherd giveth 
his life for the sheep. 

" But he that is a hireling and not the shepherd, 
whose own the sheep are not, seeth the w T olf coming, 
and leaveth the sheep, andfleeth: and the wolf catcheth 
them, and scattereth the sheep. 

"The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and 
careth not for the sheep." — John x. 11, 12, 13. 

Beloved, "let us not be deceived, God is not mocked." 



IMPROVEMENT ; <JR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 197 

A holiness or sanctification that lias not Gospel in it, 
the fire of heaven — the fire of the holy prophets and 
apostles, that thunders and lightens against sin in high 
places and in low, popular or unpopular — of thought, 
word, and deed, though the heaven's fall and the sun 
shines no more, we greatly fear it is not Bible holi- 
ness, but spurious. 

What did Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, jSTehemiah ? What God told them ? 
What was that ? Look and see. Did God tell them 
to cry aloud, spare not, show the people of Israel and 
the house of Jacob their sins ? What, now succumb, 
bow the knee to Baal ? or cry " peace, peace," when 
the very Satan held the field ? 0, that God in mercy 
would send us a few more of these sons of thunder just 
now. 

Again, what did Jesus tell his chosen apostles to do ? 
" Keep back part of the price, hold their peace," w r hile 
the enemy was coming-in like a flood ? 

Turn to Matt, x, begin at verse xvi, and read to the 
end of the chapter. 

Instance, if you please, what Paul says to Timothy, 
2 Tim. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 : 

" Are there no foes for me to face ? 
Must I not stem the flood ? " 

Reproving is one of those " weapons " which the 
apostle speaks of as not being "carnal, but mighty 
through God to the pulling down of strongholds." — 2 
Cor. x. It is one of those " daily crosses," which 
Christ has commanded us to bear, if we would be His 



198 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

followers. It is evident that if we love God with all 
our heart, we will hate sin in the same proportion ; and 
if we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will feel as 
deeply interested in their souls' salvation as our own ; 
and, consequently, we will not suffer sin upon them. 

" Holy Father ! in Thy name, 
Caring naught for sin or shame, 
Meeting boldly every storm, 
We would seek the world's reform ; 
Bravely may we bear the cross, 
Meekly suffer earthly loss ; 
Patient always in Thy sight 
May we struggle for the right." 

Note. — Friends, we see what Satan is doing through 
the medium of novels. OnQ sin leads to another still 
more ruinous and devilish. One spark from the pit 
infernal kindles other sparks. One little lire kindles 
other fires more conflagratively, till the whole world is 
in a blaze. Bonner tells us, in his " Weekly," aside 
from Beecher (we suppose), that the principal bishops, 
doctors of divinity, and clergymen, write for it. 

Is this true? or is it false? If true, Satan has the 
field in very deed, and will keep it till God in judg- 
ment and mercy blow upon these writers, publishers, 
and puffers ! 

" Yea they shall not be planted, yea they shall not 
be sown, yea their stock shall not take root in the earth : 
and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall 
wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as 
stubble." — Isaiah xl. 24. 



IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 199 

• 

This lying* process makes cowards every way — every 
Low, temporally and spiritually. Instance George 
Washington : had he been nourished mentally on lies 
preached and written^ what would lie have been good 
for as a general on the battle-Held, but to play the 
coward ? — feed on lies from the press and the pulpit, 
brave danger, and then be called the " father of his 
country ?" Paradoxical. George hated lying from 
his childhood. Glance at the next page ; see the little 
fellow and his discreet, godly mother. 

" What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light ; 
and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the 
house-tops. And fear not them which kill the body, 
but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," — 
Matt. x. 27-28. 

" God sends some teachers unto every age, 
To every clime, and every race of men, 
With revelations fitted to their growth 
And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth 
Into the selfish rule of the whole race ; 
Therefore each form of worship that has swayed 
The life of man, and given it to grasp 
The master-key of knowledge — reverence, 
Enfolds some gems of goodness and of right, 
Else never hath the eager soul which loathes 
The slothful down of pampered ignorance, 
Found in it even a moment's fitful rest," 




WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER 

" The mother, in her office, holds the key 
Of the soul ; and she it is who stamps the coin 
Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage, 
P But for her gentle cares, a Christian man. 

Then crown her Queen o' the world.'" 

Little folks and great folks, you have heard a great 
deal about George Washington, his early training, his 
habits of industry, economy, punctuality, his undeviating 
regard for truth, of whatsoever things are pure, lovely, 
and of good report. Very many, if not all these beautiful 

200 



GEORGE WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER. 201 

traits of character are attributable to early instruction, 
wisdom from above, imparted by a discreet, faithful, godly 
mother. Behold her sweet, intelligent, lovely countenance, 
apparently fixed on little George, in the engraving. 

The true explanation of George Washington's sterling 
integrity is to be found in that happy and efficient mater- 
nal influence which, it is well known, was exercised upon 
him in his early days. On the death of his father, which 
occurred when he was only ten years old, the charge of his 
education devolved upon his mother. All accounts concur 
in the admission that she was an extraordinary woman, 
possessing not only rare intellectual endowments, but 
those moral qualities which give elevation, worth, and 
dignity to the soul. Under the tutelage of such a mother, 
the foundation of a character was laid which was the ad- 
miration of the generation that was contemporary with him, 
which has lost nothing of its glory to the present time, and 
will lose nothing as long as his memory shall last. 

Integrity of character! This is what we want in the 
magistracy of the land, in the senate chamber, in the pul- 
pit, in the neighborhood, in the family, everywhere. What 
a world this would be were every one upright — a lover of 
truth, justice, and equality ! What a world it is, because 
they are so seldom found ! 

Here, then, is ample scope for parental toil and watch- 
fulness, for parental energy and wisdom. "Train up a 
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will, 
not depart from it," was verified in Washington : it must 
be verified in respect to others — in respect, mothers, to 
those little immortals whom you now press to your bosoms, 
and whom you love better than your own souls. So train 
them, that you may send them forth having on the breast- 
plate of truth. 




LOOK HERE, LITTLE FOLKS— WHAT DO YOU SEE ? 

BABIES, BABIES— LITTLE FOLKS AND LITTLE FOLKS? 

Babies here, babies there, little folks here, little folks 
there, heaps on heaps; and oh! what a blessing these 
sweet little godsends, trained in heavenly wisdom ! Little 
folks make the world better and happier ? Children trained 
for Jesus are the salt of the earth, lighthouses. The lambs, 
trained up lambs, mild, gentle, loving, in the bosom of re- 
deeming, sanctifying grace, are polished stones, olive-plants, 
roses that bloom all the year, send forth a delicious fra- 
grance sweeter than the perfumes of Arabia. 

202 



liAIUES AND LITTLE FOLKS. 



203 



What were this world, what could it be to us without 
the purity, the innocence, the frolicsome happiness, the 
moral sunshine of little children, cheerful as larks, innocent 
as doves ? They are, indeed, the very best fragrance that 
has survived the wreck of Paradise. And we can but pity 
the man who does not so regard them ; nay, we more than 
pity him — we fear him, too, even as we would 

" The man that hath no music in himself, 
Nor is not moved by concord of sweet sounds." 

Happy the man that hath his quiver full of them, with 
w r isdom and grace to make them like Jesus, ornaments, 
bright and shining, " olive-plants around his table." 

" Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." 
" Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord ; and the fruit of 
the womb is his reward." 



HYMN FOE THE LITTLE FOLKS. 

a When the Saviour's words we read, 
How they stir the inmost mind ; 
How the youthful soul they feed ; 
What new sense of love to find ! 

" How they make us loathe all sin ; 
How to love the good and true ; 
How to cleanse the fount within, 
All his will to know and do ! 

" Blessed Jesus ! sinless, pure, 
Help us all to live as well ; 
Bitter crosses to endure, 

Songs of praise and joy to swell." 




OH! OH! WHAT A BAD GIKL! 



Bad ? She is ashamed of herself, covers her face. No 
wonder. And how many little boys and girls think you, 
reader, are in the very same predicament, or worse, if pos- 
sible — disobedient, self-willed, petulant, proud as Satan can 
make them ! on the way to ruin ! Her temper subdued 
when a little one, brought into sweet, lamb-like, heavenly 
subjection ? Not a word of it. She was pampered, petted, 
indulged, foolishly and wickedly ! Now the mother reaps 
the fruits of her sickly charity, her false tenderness ! 

A girl that is petted in childhood will, in all probability, 
be a pet all her life. And what kind of a wife and a 
mother is a pet ? 

This mother, represented in the picture, have trouble with 
this troublesome daughter ? Trouble on trouble, no end to 

ft. 

2C4 



and this trouble will doubtless follow her to the grave ! 



The Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 7. 



MAKING CRAZY FOLKS. 

" For every one tluxt is mad ^ut him in prison." — Jer. xx. 26. 

15. Crazy folks? this work of Satan make folks 
crazy? Multitudes have not only lost their reason 
and good common-sense, but become idiotic, unmis- 
takably. The truth is, no one in his right mind will 
presume to write, read, sell, advertise, or puff these 
missiles of the pit. It is the worst kind of derange- 
ment or lunacy. Satan has much to do in this crazi- 
ness from first to last.* 

There are, at this very day, multitudes in close con- 
finement from this cause. And happy would it be — 
blessed, indeed, if every editor, minister, Christian 
professor, male and female — engaged in this wretched 
business — were taken to the lunatic asylum — the mad- 
house, or to Sing Sing forthwith. What an avalanche 
of misery it would save ! 



* Apologize for this outstanding, superabounding wickedness by- 
referring to Bunyan's Allegory, the parables of our Lord and Saviour, 
as example ! Is not this adding sin to sin ? We say, with our 
good brother Vandoren, "This seems to us simple blasphemy ! " 




THE PALACE OF ALLABAHAD * 

A SPECIMEN OF ARCHITECTURAL BEAUTY. 

We see from this engraving and from numerous histor- 
ical facts, that the arts and sciences flourish where the 
gospel of Jesus never shines. The most valuable and 
wonderful discoveries have been by men destitute of heav- 
enly light or saving faith. The mechanical arts were in 
great perfection before the Flood. Zilla, one of the wives 
of Lamech, bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer 
in brass and iron. This same Tubal Cain was the great 
mechanic of the day, wicked as he was. 



* We introduce these engravings as texts to preach short sermons to great folks 
and little folks, to saints and sinners. 

20G 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 8. 



" This life is a battle with Satan and sin, 
And we are the soldiers the victory to win, 
And Christ is the Captain of our little band, 
Whatever opposes, for Him we shall stand." 

16. It leads to divorces, elopements — the enticing 
away of silly, giddy, light-headed females from the 
parental roof, "laden with sins, led away with divers 
lusts." These terrible outbreaks and smash-downs in 
society are becoming more frequent and heart-rending 
as the morbid taste for the mock-sentimental increases, 
undermining, as it does, every virtuous and godlike 
principle, and prepares multitudes of young females to 
become an easy prey to the wiles of the vile seducer. 

We inquire again, on whose shoulders rests this 
enormous ^uilt ? 

When will elopements, abductions, and seductions 
cease? How long ere lewdness, libertinism, and de- 
bauchery cease to stalk in open- day ? 

When will the lips of a strange woman cease to drop 
as a honey-comb, her mouth to be smoother than oil, 
but her end bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged 
sword? When will her house cease to be the way to 
hell, " going down to the chambers of death ? " 

Will it be deemed invidious or out of place to put 
these questions renewedly to our friend, and formerly 
our fellow T -student, who now writes novels for the 

207 



2.08 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

" New York Ledger " and for theatres, for the ready 
cash? We beg him earnestly and affectionately to 
consider his responsibility in dealing with mind in its 
forming stage, destined to expand forever.* Tell us 
what a man's mental food is, and we will tell you 
where his heart is, for "out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh." 

" When the fool the wise man plays, 
Foolish and wise both let him be ; 
But when the wise man plays the fool. 
Both with pleasure stop to see." 

Wicked to attempt to cast out Satan through Beelze- 
bub, the prince of devils ? Could there possibly be 
anything wickeder ? Will not God visit for this awful 
wickedness speedily ? 

" Be ye not partakers of other men's sins. Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel 
than that which we have preached to you, let him be 
accursed." — Gal. i. 8. 

" Who is the honest man ? — 
He that doth still, and strongly, good pursue, 
To God, his neighbor, and himself, most true ; 
Whom neither force nor fawning can 
Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due." 



* What we say tp friend Beecher touching these coiled serpents, 
we say the very same to those who give favorable publicity to these 
Satanic transformations of his. 




THE GOOD SAMAEITAN ; OB, WHO IS MY 
NEIGHBOK? 

" Thy neighbor ? It is he whom thou 
Hast power to aid and bless — 
Whose aching heart or burning brow 
Thy soothing hand may press." 

An impudent, hypocritical lawyer, " willing to 
justify himself," said unto Jesus, iC And who is my 
neighbor?" 

And Jesus answering said, " A certain man went 
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among 
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and 
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 
And by chance there came down a certain priest 
that way : and when he saw him, he passed by on 
the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was 
at the place, came and looked on him, and passed 

209 



210 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as 
he journeyed, came where he was : and when he 
saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to 
him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and 
wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought 
him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the 
morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, 
and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take 
.care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, 
when I come again I will repay thee. "Which now 
of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor to him 
that fell among the thieves ?" 

And he said, " He that showed mercy on him." 

Then said Jesus unto him, "Go and do thou 
likewise." 

We see here the golden rule exemplified, a beau- 
tiful illustration of the law of loving our neighbor 
as ourselves. 

Christ is the good Samaritan. "He came to 
seek and save that which was lost." 

Christ suffered for our sins, "The just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to 
death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit." 1 
Pet. iii. 18. 

" Each faithful suff'rer Jesus views 
With infinite delight ; 
Their lives to him are dear ; their deaths 
Are precious in his sight. 

To bear his name — his cross to bear- 

Our highest honor this ! 
Who nobly suffers now for him 

Shall reign with him in bliss." 




PETEE SINKING. 

" Tossed with rough winds, and faint with fear, 
Above the tempest, soft and clear, 
What still small accents greet mine ear ? 
'TisI: be not afraid !" 



" And when Peter was come down out of the 
ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But 
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ; 
and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save 
me ! And immediately Jesus stretched forth his 
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, thou 
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And 
when they were come into the ship, the wind 
ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and 
worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the 
Son of God." (See Matt. xiv. 29-33. Please read 
the whole chapter.) 

Header, are you sinking, or fearful you will sink, 
because of unbelief ? Look to Jesus. Say as Peter 

211 



212 THE SHINING LIGHT 

did, " Lord, save me." No one can sink with Jesus 
living and abiding in his soul — " the way, the truth, 
and the life." 

" Do your sins rise up before you, and fill you 
with apprehensions of coming retribution ? Look 
to Jesus. Do you desire to be freed from the 
power of sin, and be presented to God ' without 
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ?' Look to Je- 
sus. Are you burdened with care, or do the storms 
of affliction gather around you ? Look to Jesus. 
Is your temper unsubdued, do your appetites and 
propensities rebel, and call for unhallowed gratifi- 
cation ? Look to Jesus. Do you need wisdom and 
grace for any exigency whatever ? Look to Jesus. 
Whatever your condition or necessities may be, 
hear his gracious voice, ' Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am 
meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest 
unto your souls.' " 

" Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
"While the billow s near me roll, 

While the tempest still is high. 
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, 

Till the storm of life is past ; 
Safe into the haven guide, 

Oh, receive my soul at last 1" 




^isPS^ 



GREAT ZIDON. 



Great Zidon was founded by Zidon, the eldest son 
of Canaan. Gen. x. 15. 

Great Zidon fell to the lot of Asher. Josh. xi. 8. It 
is, at present, like most of the other Turkish towns in 
Syria, dirty and full of ruins. 

It incurred the judgments of God for its sins. Ezeh. 
xxviii. 21-24. 

" Woe unto the world because of offences ! for it 
must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that 
man by whom the offence cometh ! "Wherefore, if thy 
hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off, and cast it 
from thee : it is better for thee to enter into life halt 
or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet 
to be cast into everlasting fire." Matt, xviii. 7, 8. 

2L3 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 9. 



44 Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house.'''' — Hab. ii. 9. 

17. It leads to church-gambling, the " sitting down 
to eat and drink and rising up to play." — Ex. xxxii. 6. 

Is it not so ? Look and see if you can lay your eyes 
on one professed disciple of the Lord Jesus in high 
life or low life that is bewitched or fascinated with this 
light, frothy literature — these mixed publications, 
partly good and partly evil — partly Christ and partly 
Belial — that does not, at the same time, go in heart 
and hand for pic-nic religion, sociables, festivals, 
oyster-suppers, fancy fairs, tea and strawberry parties, 
church-gambling, or revival killing in every variety 
and form?* As a general thing, this golden-calf 
business, and this kind of reading, go hand in hand — 
the one assists the other — like rum and tobacco. 



LYING AND STEALING. 

Lying is the first step or next door to thieving. No 
one becomes a thief at once. The beginning is small, 
but unless checked, the work goes surely on till great 
crimes are committed. 

* The big folks gamble, and so do the little folks. (See next page). 

2H 




THE STREET SCHOOL AND ITS FRUITS. 

" 0, it is a sadd'ning sight, 
When children go astray, 
Forsaking what is good and right, 
To walk in Satan's way." 

Marble playing, copper-pitching, chess and check- 
ers, are often stepping-stones to the gaming-table. 
Many of the most dissolute, degraded, miserable, and 
abandoned, date their first moving steps ruinward to 
marble-playing^ the chess-board, or what is erroneously 
termed an innocent game at cards. 

How then can parents, especially religious parents, 
consistently permit their children to engage in them ? 
Time is lost, worse than lost, precious, golden mo- 
ments, for which God will call you to account. A 
seared conscience, a callous heart, a turning away 
from the path of life to the path of death, is sure to 
accompany these games, sooner or later.. 

215 



216 THE STREET SCHOOL AND ITS FRUITS. 

" My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." 
"Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not 
into the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, 
turn from it and pass away." Prov. i. 10 ; also iv. 
14, 15. 

Recently two boys were playing at marbles, and 
several, as is usual, were looking on to see how the 
game went ; and it went very peaceably for a time. 
At last " You cheat," burst from one, " You lie !" 
cried the other. "Tell me I lie?" cried the first 
with an angry scowl. " Call me a cheat ?" rejoined 
the second. " Call me a cheat again, and you take 
that," doubling up his fist in the other boy's face. 
" Get out," cried the first, jumping up in a passion, 
" or I'll pitch into you." And pitch into each other 
they did like a couple of bulldogs. It was a regular 
fight, until one got the nosebleed, and the other was 
kicked over into the dirt. 

A city missionary in an eastern city, visited a man 
in jail waiting his trial. 

" Sir," said the prisoner, tears running down his 
cheeks, " I had a good home education ; it was my 
street education that ruined me. I used to slip out 
of the house, and go off with the boys in the street. 
In the street I learned to lounge ; in the street I 
learned to swear ; in the street I learned to smoke ; 
in the street I learned to gamble ; and in the street 
I learned to pilfer. Oh, sir, it is in the street the 



SIGNS OF TROSrERITY. 217 

devil lurks to work the ruin of the young !" Some 
boys are always in the street. They sleep and eat at 
home, but thej 7 live on the street ; seek amusement 
on the street ; do all the work they have to do on the 
street ; receive their education on the street ; they 
enter society on the street ; and the devil enlists them 
in his service on the street. Oh,, parents, all the 
means of grace in the world can not save them if they 
go much on the street. 

" There is no remedy for time misspent ; 

No healing for the waste of idleness, 
Whose very languor is a punishment 

Heavier than active souls can feel or guess. 
0, hours of indolence and discontent 

Not now to be redeemed I ye sting not less 
Because I know this span of life was lent 

For lofty duties, not for selfishness." 



SIGNS OF PROSPERITY. 

Where spades grow bright and idle sw r ords grow 

dull ; 
Where gaols are empty, and where barns are full ; 
Where church paths are with frequent feet outworn ; 
Law court-yards weedy, silent, and forlorn ; 
Where doctors foot it, and where farmers ride ; 
Where age abounds, and youth is multiplied ; 
Where these signs are, they clearly indicate 
A happy people and well governed state. 




TOYS FOR CHILDREN. 

" There is a path that leads to Gml, 
All others go astray. 1 '' 

Yice and infidelity assail even childhood and in 
fancy, and by means so insidious and infamous, so 
seemingly innocent, that the child is not only capti- 
vated, but even the watchful and pious parent is likely 
to be deceived and beguiled, until the secret poison, 
thus artfully disguised, has been injected into the 
unsuspecting victim. 



TOYS FOR CHILDREN. 219 

Such are the toy cards, toy dominos, and other 
games, artfully prepared with flowers and cuts, to 
catch the fancy of children, for the purpose of induct- 
ing them into the habit and love of the gambler's art, 
and imbuing them with the gambler's fiendish heart 
and hellish guilt. • 

We warn all parents against subjecting their chil- 
dren to the influence of these demoralizing and cor- 
rupting toys. They differ nothing from other gam- 
bling apparatus, but in their adaptation to the capa- 
cities of children ; and on that account are the more 
dangerous, and therefore the more to be dreaded. 
They prompt the same feelings, fire the same unhal- 
lowed passions, are susceptible of the same uses, and 
work out the same results as any other, even the most 
fraudulent and corrupting gambling apparatus. 

Take another view of this prevailing evil, consid- 
ered by many as laudable or harmless — the toys and 
playthings of every description, with which all our 
fancy stores are filled during Christmas holidays. 

The amount expended on these articles, of little or 
no value, is immense. Is this in accordance with 
Bible stewardship? Were children trained in the 
way they should go, nurtured from early infancy in 
the fear of the Lord, on gospel principles, would they 
delight, as they now do, in these trifling toys? 

"With such poor trifles playing, 
Moments make the year and trifles life." 




Gamblers and Gambling. 

" The mystery of iniquity doth already work."— 2 Thess- ii. 7. 

It has come to this at last, friends. See it, look at it. 
It is what we expected, foretold. Novels, gamblers, 
and gambling are in the same neighborhood, intimately 
associated, equally yoked. If the church gamble and 
help on gambling, set the ball in motion, what else 
look for in the world's " sons and daughters of Belial ?" 
The church is helping the world — projecting it into 
amusements. Novels lay the ground-work for gam- 
bling. What kindled the fires of hell, first of all, in 
the bosom of that prince of gamblers at Saratoga ? in 
that club-house? A silly novel or love-tale? Then, 
games of hazard, termed innocent, by teachers in 
Israel? 

And how is this burning, desolating curse to be re- 
moved from this delightful, healthful spot — a second 

220 



GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING. 221 

Eden or Paradise in beauty ? so long as professed dis- 
ciples, ministers, and religious editors assist in kindling 
these tires of the. pit? while away precious golden 
hours at their childish games, — giddy, trifling amuse- 
ments — license social dissipation ? Look at those men 
at Saratoga in ministerial boarding-houses (some of 
whom are styled doctors of divinity) at their coquet, 
conundrums, dominoes, bagattelle, cards, checkers, 
fox-and-geese, etc., telling long yarns, cracking jokes, 
cackling nonsense? while Satan rules the day. What 
impenitent sinner and professed gambler, on seeing 
these pleasure-seekers, foolish talkers, novel-writers 
and readers, and jesters in the church, does not ex- 
claim in his inmost soul, " these are hypocrites, surely, 
and their Christianity is a lie ! " 

Friends, is it at all strange that Saratoga, which should 
be a little heaven on earth, is becoming more and more 
a cage of unclean birds — a pandemonium, a place of 
demons or evil spirits ? 

Speak we thus in disrespect of the Saratogians them- 
selves ? A more respectable, courteous, morally re- 
fined people you will seldom find in any community — 
and not a few among them' are devotedly pious, and 
weep over this deluge of iniquity from abroad. It is 
the foreign rush during the warm season, that corrupts 
everything — turns honey into gall and wormwood ; 
dancers, frolickers,* horse-racers, gamblers, novel-puffers 

* On the dancing mania (intimately connected with novel-writing, 
reading, etc., puffing as it is) we give our views in the pages follow- 
ing this article. 



222 GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING. 

and readers, lewd persons — " lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God." And, O what a burning shame 
that any one, naming the name of Christ, should put 
shoulder to the wheels of these works of Satan ! 



PIETY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The use of wine — not to say strong liquors, at the 
dinner-table, is not unfrequent in so-called Christian 
homes. Attendance at the opera or theatre is no more 
classed among interdicted amusements. The sons and 
daughters of Christian households are to be trained in 
dancing-schools, permitted to give juvenile balls, 
taught to play checkers, chess, billiards, and even 
cards. Opposition to these indulgences is pronounced 
Puritanism, and Christianity is to be made so tolerant 
that such time-honored phrases as self- crucifixion, self- 
denial, keeping the body under, spiritually-minded, 
and the like, are to be cast out of the Christian voca- 
bulary. Piety is no longer to be armor-clad, armed in 
the battle-field ; but is to be clothed in gay dressing- 
gowns, slippered, lodged in well-stuffed easy- chairs. 
The road to heaven is to be traveled in railway-cars, 
with ample accommodations for the world, flesh, and 
the devil, in suitable portions of the train. 

That this spirit of self-indulgence is. cherished and 
defended in and by numerous Christian families, is 
undeniable. That it is increasing is equally true. That 
it will become general, if not sternly checked, we 
greatly fear. 




THE DANCING MANIA. 

" Tis not for man to trifle : life is brief, 

And sin is here ; 
Onr age is but the falling of a leaf, 

A dropping tear. 
We have no time to sport away the hours ; 
All must be earnest in a world like ours." 



Was there ever a period when this bewitching, 
fascinating amusement raged more intensely — when 
more time, talents, health, wealth, right reason, and 
conscience were sacrificed at the altar of this Belial ? 
The whole world is on fire, " setting on fire the 
course of nature !" Even religious parents yield 
the palm to this Moloch ! 

The name of th£ evils resulting from this dancing 
mania is legion. The reasons against the practice 
are more than can be numbered. 

We mention only a few. The end is bitter as 
wormwood, " sharp as a two-edged sword," like the 
feet of her who goeth down to death, and whose 
steps " take hold on hell." See Prov. v. 4-5. 

1. It leads to expense in dress, to late hours, to 

223 



224 



the neglect of moral and intellectual culture, and to 
various evil practices. 

2. Dancing, more or less, leads in close contact 
with promiscuous company — an impure atmosphere. 
" Evil communications corrupt good manners." 

3. It mars social intercourse, and unfits the mind 
for real, useful, substantial enjoj^ment. 

4. Dancing unfits the mind for serious reflection 
and prayer. 

5. The most wise, considerate, judicious, con- 
sistently and devotedly pious in all ages have looked 
upon dancing, as an amusement, not only as useless, 
but of decidedly evil tendency. 

6. Those who delight in the ball-room or dancing 
parties, are generally fond of the wine-cup, novel 
reading, and the card-table. 

7. Dancing is a favorite amusement of the savage 
nations, and usually forms a very important part in 
the worship of heathen gods. 

8. Social dancing, so often advocated by some 
professing Christians, is a stepping-stone to the 
ball-room and theatre — the top rounds of a ladder 
that leads down, down to the pit ! " A prudent 
man foreseeth the evil, but the simple pass on and 
are punished." Prov. xxvii. 12. 

9. Dancing-masters and dancing-mistresses are 
generally of low standing in society, not even wel- 
come at the homes of their pupils as guests. They 
are classed with theatricals of loose habits, whose 
morals will not bear scrutiny, and whose language 
is often very contaminating and corrupting ! 



10. The freedom used between the sexes in cer- 
tain forms of dancing is exceedingly immodest, and 
often results in the most serious and pernicious 
consequences ! 

11. Dancing is a most useless art — none more so. 

12. The evils flowing from dancing, and from 
inspiring children with u dancing mania, may be 
summed up in pride, folly, irreligion ; an excessive 
love of pleasure ; and finally, in the loss of the 
soul ! 

13. Dancing, as now practised by the sexes as an 
amusement, is unscriptural. Those men who per- 
verted dancing from a sacred use to purposes of 
amusement, were deemed infamous ! 

14. No instances of dancing are found upon 
record in the Bible in which the two sexes were 
engaged in the exercise, either as an act of worship 
or amusement. Neither is there any instance on 
record of social dancing for amusement, except that 
of the vain fellows devoid of shame, or the irreligious 
families described by Job, which produced increased 
impiety and ended in destruction ; and of Herodias, 
which terminated in the rash vow of Herod and the 
murder of John the Baptist. 

15. And, finally, " Let us for a moment look at a 
dance. "We will get off at a distance, and through 
a telescope whose achromatic is truth, contemplate 
one of these rigadoons. Some dozen or more ladies 
and gentlemen, so called, all dressed as splendidly 
as their purses will allow, and as lasciviously as the 
modesty of fashion will permit, upon the floor. 



226 



There they go, in and out, right and left, up and 
down, cross and back, involuting, hopping, tripping, 
smiling, smirking, here a skip and there a jump, 
now a desperate fling and anon a subdued courtesy, 
till, panting for breath and tired, they sit down ex- 
hausted, and give place to a second round. 

" A little fanning and reviving salts, spiced with 
equal portions of nonsense ; a few words of small- 
talk, and, it may be, a glass of hock, or sherry, or 
champagne, fill up the circle of folly and complete 
the bill of fare of n convivial dance till supper-time. 
The first question we ask ourselves is, what does all 
this mean ; for what purpose is all this labor, not 
of love, but of legs ; all this outward adorning, not 
of good works, but of costly apparel ; all this dis- 
play, not of a meek and quiet spirit, but of pride 
and tumultuous vanity ? Is it for the glory of God ? 
No. Is it to feed the hungry? No. To clothe 
the naked ? To visit the widow and orphan in their 
affliction ? No. Is it to prepare us for the house 
of God ? Is it to teach self-denial or lead to the 
foot of the cross ? There was no dancing there. 
Is it to prepare us for family worship ? It will be 
too late, and worship too dull and serious an exer- 
cise to break in upon the * voluptuous swell' of 
music, and stay the rapture of scenes where ' all 
goes merrily as the marriage-bell.' 

* On with the dance ! Lot joy be unconfined ; 
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet, 
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet/ 

" Is it to prepare to meet the king of terrors ; to 



227 



remind tliem that it is appointed unto all men once 
to die, and after death the judgment ? Ah, no ! 
This is no place to meet thee, death ; for — 

'Come, when the heart beats high and warm, 
With banquet-song, and dance, and wine, 
And thou art terrible !' 

" No thought like these is in all their hearts ; God 
nor Christ, heaven nor hell, judgment nor death, 
ever enter there ; but, light of heart and vain of 
head, as ever child in the butterfly sport of spring, 
they frolic upon the brink of eternity, nor know 
that beneath every spring in the giddy dance it is 
fearfully crumbling. These are solemn thoughts ; 
and with them we should pause and consider." 

" For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the 
flesh reap corruption." « 



TESTIMONIALS.— No. 1. 

BY THE EDITOE OF THE " GOLDEN RULE," ON THE 
IDEA OF GRACEFULNESS. 

" To he graceful" That's it, parents, to be grace- 
ful. You send your children to the dancing-school 
to learn the art of grace. "Whence this idea ; from 
the Bible ? Is this learning to be graceful at the 
dancing-school, in the ball-room, the teachings of 
Christ, of Paul, Peter, James, or John ? Is the 
dancing-school a school of grace ? Does it lead 
any of your " little ones" in the path of virtue, the 



228 



narrow way to life eternal? Have any of your 
children been convicted for sin, converted to God, 
born into the kingdom, become holy, in the dancing- 
school ? When Solomon said, " Train up a chilcl 
in the way he should go," did he suggest the dan- 
cing-school as a means to this godly training? 
When the apostle said, bring up your children in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord, was a 
dancing-school proposed? Are dancing masters 
and mistresses examples of virtuous purity and 
humility ? Are these schools opened by reading 
the Scriptures, singing, and prayer ? Is God's 
blessing invoked when about " to chase the glowing 
hours with flying feet?" 

"In all their ways Christians acknowledge God," 
but prayer would not be tolerated at the opening 
of balls, nor any other distinct invocation or ac- 
knowledgment of His presence. 

Are there any intimations in these schools touch- 
ing faith that works by love and purifies the heart ; 
repenting for sin, a holy life, death, judgment, and 
eternity ? 

PAELOR DANCINGS 

Are becoming fashionable in the higher walks, as a 
kind of substitute for the ball-room and the opera- 
house. Members of churches, professed followers 
of the meek and lowly Jesus, male and female, 
married and unmarried, instead of doing good, 
attending meetings for prayer and praise, warning 
sinners to flee from the wrath to come, spend even- 



229 



ing after evening in fashionable circles, in dancing, 
hopping, skipping, even to a late hour. This gay, 
fashionable, and Christian hilarity usually takes 
place at the close of a levee or pleasure party. 

So very popular are these parlor dances that 
some professed ministers of the gospel sanction 
them I* on the plea that many other practices are 
far more exceptionable. 

On the subject of parlor dancing we give the 
testimony of the beloved sister Eaton, now in glory, 
while editing the "Friend of Virtue." Though 
dead, hear her speak : 

" Do the precepts of the gospel require dancing 
as one of the means of grace ? We are exhorted 
by the word of God to do all things to His glory. 
Can you promote the glory of God in the. dance c 
Before engaging in this exercise can you retire infcL 
your closet and pray for divine assistance, that you 
may dance with credit to yourself and to the ad- 
miration of others ? Can you pray that you may 
enjoy the light of God's countenance in the perform- 
ance ? Will it strengthen your faith in Christ, your 
humility, meekness, sobriety, or your charity and 



* A. dancing clergyman soon finds his level in the estimate of 
all, but no higher standard is imposed upon him than upon other 
Christians. 

Christians whose memory is preserved in the Church, such as 
Baxter, Bunyan, Edwards, and Harlan Page, were not dancers. 

Dancing is the distress of churches in which it is practised ; it 
paralyzes the minister, and grieves the most devoted members of 
the body. 



230 



benevolence? Will it, in short, aid you to walk 
more humbly before God, or more circumspectly 
before men ? If you can reply to all these questions 
in the affirmative, then dance, and dance often — the 
oftener, the more holy and the more useful as a 
follower of Christ. Dancing is a virtue, a high 
mark of civilization, and of a refined, cultivated 
intellect! You, church members, who cannot or 
will not dance, to what degradation does the want 
of this accomplishment reduce you ! You are 
ranked with the vulgar and lowly — the doors of the 
first circles are locked against you ! Yes, dance on, 
Christian, and thus with all diligence add to faith 
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge 
temperance, and to temperance patience, and to 
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly 
kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. If ye 
in this way give evidence that these things abound 
in you, then are ye 6 neither barren nor unfruitful 
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 

" There may be no sin in the physical exercise of 
dancing. "We call it sin on the same principle that 
we denominate theft or murder a sin. There is no 
sin in the act of stealing or killing, so far as the 
act is predicated upon the action of mere bone and 
muscle ; but the sin is the disposition of the heart 
which causes the act. So of the act of dancing, 
we call it sinful, because it is prompted by a frivol- 
ous feeling — a love of conformity to the world, or 
by any thing but a Christian spirit. This is enough 
to convince the Christian that the practice of parlor 



231 

dancing is repugnant to the spirit and character of 
his holy profession. And, aside from this internal 
argument, let him consider the influence of his ex- 
ample. If the social dance in the private room be 
attended with less evils than the more public ono 
of the ball-room in their immediate effects, it cer- 
tainly cannot be in those more remote, for however 
plausible may be arguments that are offered in its 
justification, the world will laugh them to scorn, 
and say, ' If you dance, why not we V And sure 
enough, why should not the irreligious dance with 
such examples before them ? They may and will 
dance, when and where they will, and you, Christian 
dancer, can utter no voice of rebuke. ' But my 
parlor, 5 you say, 'is not a ball-room. I allow 
nothing unbecoming a well-regulated and refined 
social circle — nothing to offend the most fastidious 
taste — nothing to corrupt the mind or heart.' This 
may quiet your own conscience, but it carries no 
conviction to the pleasure-seeking world, that your 
parlor dancing is so dissimilar from that of the 
ball-room, that you can, without the contradiction 
of your own example, preach Christian sobriety to 
others. Say what you will, you cannot convince 
the devotees of vicious amusements that there is 
more sanctity in a promiscuous assembly of saints 
and sinners in a parlor, than in one of sinners only 
in* a ball-room. You cannot convince them that 
there is more of the divine in the sound of the piano 
measuring the nimble movements of Christian feet 
in the parlor, than in the twang of the fiddle regu- 



232 



lating the scientific convulsions of the ungodly in 
the ball-room. Neither can you exonerate yourself 
from the pernicious influence of your example by 
pleading the greater respectability of the social 
party in a private room. Respectability is not 
piety, nor is it morality per se. 

' Wasted — youth's rich golden hours ! 
Wasted — loftiest, mightiest powers ! 
Wasted — manhood's glorious prime, 
Hopes, and aims, and thoughts sublime !' n 



3. TESTIMONY OF MES. BAKEWELL IN 
THE " MOTHER'S PEACTICAL GUIDE." 

" I am aware," sa,js Mrs. Bakewell, " that some 
plead for dancing as an exercise that contributes to 
health, as essential to give children a graceful and 
an easy carriage, and as an agreeable amusement 
for a social party. If, indeed, these ends could not 
be secured apart from dancing, there would be some 
weight in the considerations adduced ; but facts 
prove that health, gracefulness, and social amuse- 
ment may be realized without resorting to a prac- 
tice, however fashionable, which is attended with 
both physical and moral evils. It is not, be it 
understood, the mere act of dancing to which we 
object ; it is the feelings which it excites, the cir- 
cumstances by which it is surrounded, and the 
associations to which it leads, that stamp it with 
odium. Children accustomed to the display of the 
ball-room, or even of the social dance, become dis- 



233 



contented with the quiet, unobtrusive pleasures of 
home, and have a constant hankering after visits 
and visitors. But it is not while children are en- 
tirely under your own control that the worst effects 
are to be feared. If you train them up to love the 
world, w T ith its forms and fashions, and to seek their 
happiness in worldly amusements, rely upon it, that 
when they are at an age to choose their own acquaint- 
ance, and their own recreations, the gay party will 
have more charms than the fireside circle, and the 
fashionable entertainments of the world will be far 
more attractive than either the house of God or the 
retirement of the closet. 

"To these, other objections may be raised to 
dancing, especially in religious families, to which 
my remarks have primary reference. Whatever 
may be said in its favor, I am bold to say, much 
more may be said against it. I am in no sense un- 
friendly to cheerfulness, and the various sociabili- 
ties of life, provided they accord with the high 
principles of Christian faith and hope. But I must 
protest against an accomplishment which generally 
gives a distaste for better things, which calls into 
operation feelings of vanity and pride, w T hich con- 
sumes so much precious time, which interferes with 
the. sacredness of domestic worship, and in most 
cases leads to its abandonment 

Who shall recall the vanished years ? 

Who shall hold back the ebbing tide 
That leaves us remorse, and shame, and tears, 

And washes awav all things beside V " 



234 



TESTIMONY.— No. 4. 

The celebrated Adam Clark, the commentator, 
says : " I consider dancing a branch of that worldly 
education which leads from heaven to earth, from 
things spiritual to things sensual, and from God to 
Satan. Let them plead for it who will, I know it 
to be an evil, and only evil. * No man in his senses 
would dance,' said Cicero, a heathen. Shame, 
then, on those Christians who advocate a cause by 
which many sons have become profligate, and many 
daughters have been ruined. 

9 Oli, world ! liow deeply fallen from thy sphere ! 
Oh, mind ! how lost thy noblest wing of thought ! 
Oh, soul ! how base thy form — how lost art thou 
To God's similitude — how deep thy stain !' " 



" Wisdom crieth without ; she uttereth her voice 
in the streets. 

" She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the 
openings of the gates : in the city she uttereth her 
words, saying — 

" How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ; 
and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools 
hate knowledge ? 

" Turn you at my reproof : behold, I will pour out 
my spirit unto you, I will make known my words 
unto you." 

^° Addkess Tract Depository, 303 West 20th street, N. Y. 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 10. 



" Can we peruse a book like this, 

And seek a Father's blessing here ? 
Forsake the path that leads to bliss, 
To shed o'er fiction's page a tear ? " 

18. LOOSING GRACE. 

Loosing grace? What kind? Bible? Salvation 
grace, purchased with blood ? Who has saving grace, 
keeps it, loves it, but those who fear God and keep his 
commandments, " abstain from all appearance of evil ?" 

" What is not of faith is sin." What, talk about 
grace — the life and power of God in the soul, and serve 
the wicked-one — clasp Satan to your bosom ? 

Loose grace ? What grace ? The grace of the novel- 
writer, reader, and puffer? These have grace ? If 
grace they once had — the least spark, where now ? If 
the light that is in us be darkness, how great that 
darkness ! Salt that has lost its savor is fit for what ? 
The dunghill? No, it is not. 

Do novel-readers love the Bible ? embrace it heartily, 
practice its holy precepts ? Is the Word of God sweet 
to their taste as honey and the honey-comb ? Do they 
make the Bible their counsel, their guide, their lamp, 
and their light ? meditate on it day and night ? 

Who ever knew a young convert — a newly-born soul, 
bright and shining, mounting up on the wings of re- 
deeming, sanctifying grace, to the third heavens, mean- 

235 



236 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

while poring over the light and frothy readings or 
love-tales of Harper, Godey, Peterson, Arthur, Leslie, 
Dickens, Beecher, and other mixed publications of a 
similar character ? Salvation in Christ is as opposite to 
these miscreants as light is from darkness, as heaven is 
from hell. Live and breathe in this atmosphere? 
Where now the grace, the life, the hope, the joy, the 
holy unction, the lire, the pentecostal of the young dis- 
ciple ? Is the closet now sweet to him as heaven can 
make it ? The Bible, honey to the soul ? more precious 
than gold ? 

Novels kill out prayer — God's holy Word, salvation's 
fire ! When the devil is in, the Lord of glory is out. 
The blessed Bible is no longer sweet as honey and 
the honey-comb. Prayer is no longer delightful, soul- 
ravishing. 

Do not ministers and religious editors, who commend 
these reptiles, these serpents coiled, know they are 
helping Satan to do his devilish work ? 

What a fearful, awful woe is denounced against those 
who offend one of God's little ones, cause him to 
stumble! * 

Oh, if there be a doom more dread 

Than others on the judgment-day, 
It sure must be for him who led 

A pure and gentle heart astray. 
There may be pardon for the knave, 

And mercy for the wretch that stole ; 
But heaven, I fear, will ne'er forgive 

The murderer of a human soul. 



* See Matt, xviii. 6-7. 




THE FOOLISH BUILDEKS, BUILDING ON 
THE SAND! 

Eriends of the Bible, turn to Matthew vii. 24, 25, 
and you will see how beautifully the engraving 
illustrates the sentiment of our blessed Lord in 
closing his Sermon on the Mount. Those who build 
their houses on a sandy foundation are the foolish 
ones — the first sweeping rain that comes with gush- 
ing winds, down goes their houses! The loss is 

2:37 



238 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

irreparable ! This represents the sinner, the false 
professor. How many at the present day are build- 
ing their hopes for eternity on a sandy foundation ! 

It was so in Christ's time, it is so now, and 
doubtless will be to the end of time. There are 
hypocrites in abundance, professing godliness, 
rotten at heart, selfish, sensual, serving divers lusts 
and pleasures, " spots in our feasts." 

There are others again self-deceived, who flatter 
themselves they are on the way to heaven, glory 
eternal, while they have no saving knowledge of 
Jesus. Their hope is compared to a spider's web. 
They attend the house of God, take their seats at 
the communion-table, pay tithes of mint, anise, and 
cummin, and omit the " weightier matters of the 
law, judgment, mercy, and faith." Matt, xxiii. 23. 
They are like the foolish virgins, who took their 
lamps but took no oil in them. 

When the marriage feast was ready, they entered 
not in. When they cried, "Lord, Lord, open to 
us !" the reply was ; " Verily I say unto you, 1 know 
you not." Matt. xxv. 11, 12. 

" Many will say unto me in that day : Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in 
thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done 
many wonderful works. And then will I profess 
unto them, I never knew you ; depart from me, ye 
that work iniquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23. " Not every 
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will 
of my Father who is in heaven." 



Improvement ; or, Practical Results.— No. 11. 

11 False lights are darting all around, 
And voices thro' the air resound 
To lure us from the Trulh away, 
'Mid all uncertain wilds to stray." 

19. Look once more, friends, at the result s of the6e 
false readings, mock-sentimentals, serpents coiled, imps 
of Satan ! 

Mark the rotation, or what follows: 1. Lightness 
of speech, frivolous conversation, senseless gabble. 
2. Pride of fashion, idolatry in dress, personal decora- 
tions. 3. The pleasure -party, the ball-room or dance- 
house, the theatre and opera. What next ? The way 
to hell, going down to the chambers of death. 

The following lines were found in a wretched garret, 
after the decease of a young female of superior con- 
nections and education, who became the victim of 
disease, poverty, and wretchedness : 

" When paniper'd, starv'd, abandon'd, or in drink, 
My thoughts were rack'd in striving not to think ; 
Nor could rejected conscience claim the power, 
To improve the respite o£ one serious hour. 
I durst not look to what I was before, 
My soul shrunk back, and wish'd to be no more ! 
Of eye undaunted, and of touch impure, 
Old, ere of age, worn out when scarce mature ; 
Cover'd with guilt, infection, debt and want, 
My home a brothel, and the streets my haunt, 
'Till the full course of sin and vice gone through, 
My shatter'd fabric failed at twenty-two ! 
Then death, with every horror in its train, 
Here closed the scene of naught but guilt and pain. 
2.J9 



240 IMPROVEMENT ; OR PRACTICAL RESULTS. 

Ye fair associates of my op'ning bloom, 
Oh, come and weep, and profit at my tomb ; 
Then shun the path where gay delusions shine : 
The lesson yours— the sad experience mine ! " 

Is this a solitary case ? Speak ye wretched beings 
at the Five Points — speak — speak from the tombs — 
speak, ye lost souls — speak — that the living may hear. 

Inquire of the inmates of these wretched abodes — 
houses of debauchery, of prostitution — the first step to 
their hell of hells ! In nine cases out of ten, the reply 
will be — " a novel — a silly love-tale sent forth by men 
and women calling themselves Christians." 

Cases frequently transpire in which some lost one, 
at the close of a life of crime, tells how he or she was 
led from the ways of rectitude by nonsensical reading. 
And the instances which thus come to light are only as 
one in ten thousand. 



FOR YOUR CHILDREN. 

Did parents realize the infinite importance of seek- 
ing to promote the purity of their children, did they 
feel as deeply, think as strongly, and act as efficiently, 
as they do in reference to some other subjects, the sup- 
posed difficulties would flee as clouds before the wind. 

" My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not, 
If they say, Come with us, let us wait for blood, let 
us lurk privily for the innocent without cause ; my son, 
walk not thou in the way with them ; refrain thy foot 
from their path."— Prov. i. 10, 11, 15. 




SEE THIS WOMAN ON A BED OF LANGUISHMENT 
NIGH UNTO DEATH. 

What for ? What the first cause — sin ? Had not sin 
, entered, there would have been no sickness, no pain, no 
death. 

241 



Sins of Thought— Sins of Deed. 



" For as he thinlteth in his hearty so is he." — Prov. xxiii. 7. 

" Think truly, and thy thoughts 

Shall the world's famine feed ; 
Speak truly, and each word of thine 

Shall be a fruitful seed ; 
Live truly, and thy life shall be 

A great and noble creed." 

Sins. — The most outrageous, soul-ruinous, begin in 
thought and terminate in deeds of darkest and blackest 
hue. 

Why do the thoughts of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe 
wander " like the fool's eye " to the ends of the earth ? 
"Why does she advocate worldly pleasures, billiard- 
tables, nine-pin alleys — stages for getting up tableaux, 
dramatic performances, and other games of chance — 
utensils of Satan leading to gambling dens and 
gambling hells ? 

These carnal implements of the evil-onS are com- 
mended to the church of Christ in preference to 
Sunday-schools ! * 

Did she ever dream of putting her hands to this ini- 
quity, outstanding and heaven-daring, till she fell into 
-the trap of Satan, viz. : the the reading novels and 
writing novels ? 

" Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth !" 



: We quote from public records, but the half is not told. 
242 



SINS OF THOUGHT — SINS OF DEED. 243 

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that 
the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? who- 
soever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the 
enemy of God." — James iv. 4. 

" If any man love the world, the love of the Father 
is not in him." 

Was not this the starting-point that led her to deny 
the Lord that bought her? Once she commended 
nobly and blessedly the bread of heaven, angels' food, 
to the rising age, but now " Husks — swines' food — food 
for swine ! " — Luke xv. 16. 

" What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord." 
— Jer. xxiii. 28. 

Alas ! how are the mighty fallen, and the weapons 
of war perished ! Tell it not, publish it not ! " Lest 
the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daugh- 
ters of the uncircumcised triumph." — 2 Sam. i. 20. 

There is no offence upon the face of the earth which 
causes such deep, overwhelming, heart-burning grief 
and sorrow. as does this one single crime of seduction, 
of leading the youth of our cities astray in paths of 
vice and sinful amusements. 

Who knows what multitudes will go to billiard- 
rooms, theatres, gambling-dens, and " the house of her 
whose steps take hold on hell," through the instrumen- 
tality of this one novel-writer and publisher ? 

Will not the judgment-day reveal terrible things? 
" For God shall bring every work into judgment with 
every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be 
evil." — Ec. xii. 14. 



244 SINS OF THOUGHT — SINS OF DEED. 

Previous to this woman's commencing her novel 
career, very many religious editors thundered terribly 
against these bubblings of the pit — novels and roman- 
ces, but now their lips are closed — hush as the tomb ! 
It has become popular to serve the devil, so they go it ! 
If Old Nick himself could and would pen a popular, 
fictitious, devilish tale, and cash could be made by it, 
how many of our editorial brethren in the church 
would hesitate, for a moment, to give it a puff? com- 
mend it to public favor ? 

It is the duty of every man and woman who loves 
their country, and its better and nobler social life, to 
exert a positive influence against this entire class of 
perdition literature. It is poisoning and corrupting 
the hearts of hundreds of thousands of the youth of 
our country to-day. It is leading scores of thousands 
insensibly but surely into the maelstrom, where they 
will be swallowed up forever. 



THE CRACKLING OF THORNS. 

" It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise than for 
a man to hear the song of fools. For, as the crackling 
of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool." 
— Eccles. vii. 6. "The heart of the wise is in the 
house of mourning ; but the heart of fools is in the 
house of mirth." — Eccles. vii. 4. 



PERVERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES BY 
WICKED MEN.— No. 1. 

" Let all the heathen writers join 
To form one perfect book ; 
Great God, if once compared with thine 
How mean their writings look !" 

It is not a little remarkable, as well as painful, 
to see with what ease and readiness the Scriptures 
are used to sustain some of the most anti-Christian 
notions. These errors are imbibed by adopting the 
sayings or opinions of others, without taking the 
pains to search the Scriptures impartially and 
prayerfully for ourselves. We Protestants claim to 
have the individual right to search and understand 
the Scriptures for ourselves. Indeed, this is our 
prominent peculiarity. It was not enough for the 
noble Bereans that the great Apostle of the Gentiles 
had said thus. They searched the Scriptures daily, 
to see if he had told them the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth. How dangerous and 
inconsistent the course of those who "pin their 
faith on their preacher's sleeve," or do no more 
than follow in the wake of their popular author or 
favorite commentator ! The worst errors that ever 
cursed the church and the world, have insidiously 
stolen upon the people just in this way. 

Very many of the profoundest intellects, men of 
high standing, of boasted talents and erudition, 
have darted off like a tangent, or like a planet from 
its orbit, spreading widely death, desolation, and 
damnation in their train. 

245 



246 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

"Let earth, unbalanced, from her orbit fly, 
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky ; 
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, 
Being on being wrecked, and world on world ; 
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod, 
And Nature tremble to the throne of God." 

So it has been, so it is, so it will be, we fear. 

God gives over wicked men to judicial blindness, 
" strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; 
that they all might be damned who believe not the 
truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." 

" But better had they ne'er been born, 
Than read to doubt and read to scorn." 

Their character we must of course judge by their 
teachings. Lord Herbert, a noted deist, maintains, 
" that lusts or passions are no more blameworthy 
than hunger or thirst." Hobbes, that " right and 
wrong are mere quibbles of men's imaginations, but 
that there is no real distinction between them." 
Lord Bolingbroke asserted that " the chief end of 
man was to gratify his lusts and passions ; that he 
was so made, and that in gratifying them existed 
his greatest happiness." Hume declares, that 
" self-denial and humility were positive vices, and 
that adultery rather elevated than degraded the hu- 
man character." Eouss#au taught that, "whatever 
man feels is right." Paine, the gross blasphemer, 
was a drunkard. Voltaire advocated the very 
depths of the lowest possible sensuality. And, if 
we are permitted to judge of their characters by 
their doctrines, then they are really a sorry recom- 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 247 

mendation for the party who propose to improve 
the world without the Bible. 

" First, Appetite enlists him Truth's sworn foe, 
Then obstinate Self-Will confirms him so. 
Tell him he wanders — that his error leads 
To fatal ills — that, though the path he treads 
Be flowery, and he sees no cause of fear, 
Death and the pains of hell attend him there : 
In vain ! the slave of arrogance and pride, 
He has no hearing on the prudent side." 



Reader, admitting the Bible to be true, have you 
taken its precepts for the rule of your every-day 
life, endeavoring to conform all your actions to 
them ? It professes to reveal God's richest grace, 
to open up the depths of God's infinite love, to 
make full provision for all men's maladies and 
wants, and to present a rule to regulate the whole 
of man's conduct in all the walks of life. Nor does 
it more require us to believe its doctrines, rely on 
its promises, or prove its veracity, than it does to 
observe each and all its precepts. Neither can we 
really rely on the atonement of Christ for our ac- 
ceptance with God, or enjoy the work of the Holy 
Spirit in our hearts preparing us for heaven, with- 
out making the holy precepts of Jesus the rule of 
our life, and his example the lovely pattern after 
which we work. If, therefore, you do not act upon, 
and walk by the precepts of God's word, you do not 
do justice to the Bible. 



PEKVERSION OF THE SCRIPTUEES BY 
WICKED MEN.— No. 2. 

" Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain 
thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord 
shall have them in derision. " Psa. ii. 1-4. 

It is to be expected that wicked men will oppose 
the Gospel, and we must not think some unusual 
thing has happened in our times, when atheists, 
infidels, and heretics renew their oft-repeated but 
futile efforts to overthrow evangelical religion. It 
is very natural and proper that Christians should 
be grieved to witness such exhibitions of wickedness 
and folly, but there is no occasion for fear, or that 
nervousness which is sometimes shown by faithful 
though timid disciples. 

The foolish man who tries to countervail the pur- 
poses of the Almighty deserves pity. It reminds 
one of the picture of the infuriated viper gnawing 
a file. 

As we look back over the history of the church 
and notice the fate of the opposers of religion, we 
cannot fail to commiserate them as we witness their 
utter overthrow and miserable end. Those who 
fight against God, in every age and nation, seem to 
share the same fate. Nor does it make any differ- 
ence whether they carry on their warfare with 
tongue, or pen, or sw r ord, their defeat and disgrace 
are equally sure and complete. 

Cain, Pharaoh, Haman, Nebuchadnezzar, Bel- 
ehazzar (See engraving, p. 120), Herod, Pontius 

248 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 219 

Pilate, Judas Iscariot, Ananias, Simon Magus, 
Porphyry, Celsus, Galevis, Voltaire, David Hume, 
and Thomas Paine are united witnesses that " the 
way of the transgressor 'is hard." The shocking 
fate of all these men should teach modern opposers 
of religion the end to which they are hastening. 
What cause have Christians to fear when another 
madman raises his puny arm against the Creator 
and Ruler of all things ? Do we fear that God can- 
not govern the world ? 

Let us rest assured that He can restrain the 
wrath of man and turn the residue thereof to his 
praise. Let us, then, trust in God and fear not. 
Let us be willing to submit to Him in all things, 
and He will work in us and by us both to will and 
to do. We rejoice in the thought that our Father 
rules the world, and that wicked men cannot resist 
His power or defeat His gracious purposes. The 
Rock hewn out of the mountain without hands, 
shall roll on till it fills the earth as the waters cover 
the sea. 



" In the wilderness I wander — 
Dangers press on every side ; 
Foes around me watch my stumbling, 
But thou art still my faithful guide : 
Thou dqsfc light the rugged pathway, 
Show me all the dangers there ; 
Point me to the better country, 
Where a radiant crown I'll wear." 



THE END OF SCOFFERS AND BLAS- 
PHEMERS OF THE BIBLE. 

Hear the Apostle Peter (chap. ii. 3, 4) : " Knowing this first, 
that in the last days scoffers will come, walking after their own 
lust, saying : Where is the promise of his coming ?" 

The scoffing and blaspheming Voltaire said to 
his physician : " I will give you the half of my 
property, if you secure me my life for six months 
longer." But when the answer came that he could 
not survive so many weeks, he exclaimed : " Then 
L must go to hell !" Afterwards he alternately called 
upon Christ, and blasphemed God, Mirabeau 
cried, in the agonies of death : " Give me more 
laudanum, that I need not think of eternity, and of 
what is to come." Hobbes fared no better. His 
atheism, also, left him without a foundation in that 
trying hour. He exclaimed : " I am about to take 
a leap in the dark." It is true, the truthfulness of 
these citations, which might be multiplied, is denied 
by the Infidels of our day ; but it must be remem- 
bered that it is to their interest to deny statements, 
however truthful, which might work detrimental to 
a cause to the support of which they are pledged. 
It is a tacit confession, on their part, that a cause 
which forsakes its adherents in the most perilous 
hour is a bad one. 

Sa3 r s an eminent divine : " I have seen Universal- 
ists and Infidels die, and during a ministry of fifty- 
five j^ears I have not found a single instance of 
peace and joy in their views of eternity. 

250 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 251 

nothing but an accusing conscience and the terrors 
of apprehension. I have seen men die who were 
men of mercurial temperament, men of pleasure 
and fun, men of taste and literature, lovers of the 
opera and the theatre rather than the house of God, 
and I never saw an instance in which such persons 
died in peace. They died as they lived. Life was 
a blank, and death the king of terrors ; a wasted 
life, an undone eternity. 5 ' 

How is it with you, skeptical reader ? Have you 
no doubts about your sentiments? Is your mind 
at rest, both day and night ? Do you hear from 
within no whispers of alarm — no forebodings of 
trouble yet to come ? 

Whence did you learn that the Bible is false, and 
Jesus Christ an impostor ? Did you from the death- 
bed of the Deist, or of the Christian- — from the 
despair and horror of the one, or from the joy and 
triumph of the other ? Are you certain that the 
Bible is false ? If you are not, beware. If it is not 
false, the certainty of your eternal perdition as a 
skeptic, is as unquestionable as your existence. 
Only lodge the thought in your heart that you may 
he on a false foundation, and then judge for yourself 
of the prospect before you. 

Perhaps another reader respects the Bible, and 
says he believes it, but is unconcerned. Have you 
no fears about your salvation? Are your nerves 
firm when you look upward to the judgment-seat ? 
Do you desire to depart from this world of sin, to 
be with Christ ; or do you tremble when you think 



252 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

of the hour of departure ? Remember, dear friend, 
"the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him." 

Fly, then, from these fears — instantly fly to the 
Lord Jesus Christ. He only can save you. But ir 
you will not repent, and believe in Christ, then sit 
down and weep, and forget not your eternal inher- 
itance : " The fearful and unbelieving," says the 
immortal God, " shall have their part in the lake 
which burnetii with fire and brimstone, which is 
the second death." 

" 'Tis truth that binds, and truth makes free, 
And sets the soul at liberty 
From sin and Satan's heavy chain, 
And then within the heart doth reign. 

" They have a freedom then, indeed, 
That doth all freedom else exceed ; . 
Freedom from guilt, freedom from woe, 
And never more shall bondage know." 



Reader, w\here are you? Do the unseen things 
revealed in the Bible more deeply affect you than 
the visible objects around you? Are you carnally 
minded or spiritually minded ? Have you read the 
second chapter of Isaiah lately, commencing at the 
tenth verse ? How sublime, how powerful the ap- 
peals and descriptions there presented! Isaiah 
saw the day of the Lord coming, and that day is to 
be distinguished by two features ; the haughtiness 
of man is to be bowed down, and the Lord alone is 
to be exalted. 



Calling Names. 



11 Speak thou the truth. Let others fence 
And trim their words for pay ; 
In pleasant sunshine or pretence 
Let others bask their day." 

Call names? Who can help it? Who dares? 
Wherefore specify ? Because God does — good names 
and bad names, from Genesis to Revelations — holds up 
wicked folks to the gaze of the universe to look at, and 
also the good folks — the blessed evermore. See Abra- 
ham, the father of the faithful, look at him. Moses, 
also the meekest of men — Joshua who, in answer to 
prayer, caused the sun to stand still. David the sweet 
singer of Israel, Solomon the wisest of the wise. The 
good Hezekiah and Josiah, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, sons of thunder — sons of 
fire ! The three blessed ones cast into the fiery fur- 
nace, heated seven times hotter than is wont. Where- 
fore called ? for examples ? Assuredly. 

O, for a host of Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abedne- 
goes, who will stand the fire — fires on fires, come life, 
come death. Lord, send them. But stop, where is 
Job, the patientest of the patient ? Pass him by '( 
Never, nor the true Bible reformers, Ezra and Nebe- 
miah. Praise the Lord for these — bold ones for God, 
truth and love. Come nearer home, take a peep at 
John the Baptist, filled with* the Holy Spirit from his 

253 



254 CALLING NAMES. 

birth, shrink from truth, from reproof, at the loss of his 
head ? When ? where ? God of mercy send us more 
of these thunder ers, who spurn from their utmost soul 
cowardice in the field of battle — its thunder, thunder, 
thunder ! Load and fire — load and fire ! Hot bomb- 
shells of God's truth, red hot are thrown into the very 
midst of Satan's camp ; leaving consequences with God 
for execution. 

Then comes on the docket, Paul, Peter, James and 
John. What were they? sychophants? Ephraims, 
turning aside in the day of battle? time-servers, in- 
temperate daubers, bowing here, bowing there, to 
popular conservatisms? loving the praise of men more 
than the praise of God ? Look and see, friends. These 
names are called out — what for ? For us to look at 
and imitate, with the Lord of glory himself! 

Who is on the Lord's side ? Who ? Turn now your 
eyes to the bad folks — seest thou Cain, the first mur- 
derer, and first Unitarian? His name is called out 
blazingly, so is Pharoah's, the oppressor and slave- 
holder — Balaam, the false prophet, rebuked by the 
dumb ass, for his madness and money-loving. Look 
at him, ye false prophets and soothsayers, lovers of 
" ill-gotten gains." Mark also Nebuchadnezzar, what 
did he do? Seek his own glory and not God's? 
What now ? Driven from men and made to eat 
grass as oxen, for seven long years, till his hairs were 
grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' 
claws ! * 

a I am the Lord ; that is my name ; an*} my glory 



CALLING NAMES. 255 

will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven 
images." — Is.a. xlii. 8. 

Did time and space permit, we might allude to the 
bloody Manasseh, Ahab and Jezebel, the hypocritical, 
time-serving, money-loving Scribes and Pharisees — 
Simon the sorcerer, Demetrius the shrine maker, Alex-^ 
ander the copper-smith, whose names are called out — 
held up as beacons of warning, a§ pillars of fire, blaz- 
ing out. Thus in imitation of the blessed Lord, and 
his faithful ones, we call names for the same reason — 
the same motives.* 

The sinner that raises the puny arm against the 
Most High, in open day, is called out that heaven and 
earth may hear : " They that sin openly, rebuke 
openly." 

When King David sinned, and his son Solomon — 
the greatest and wisest of men — mark how their names 
were called out, and held up to the gaze of all on earth 
and all in heaven, forever and forever ! Even Peter, 
though he sinned under the pressure of a powerful 
temptation, is not screened, concealed, or kept behind 



* Call names ? How help it ? The very stones would cry out. 
Call names ? Louder and still louder, thunder them from pole to 
pole, thunder on thunder — peal on peal. Every one in public- life, 
in the church professing discipleship and still on the side of Satan, 
upliftedly, should be held up sky-high in all his naked, devilish de- 
formity, in characters of blood ! as a beacon of warning to young 
and old, little and big. What, kill folks body and soul, murder in 
open sunshine deliberately, and no one to scream out, " murder ! 
murder I murder ! " stop the murderer, hang him ! Quick I haste, 
hang him fifty cubits high. 



256 CALLING NAMES. 

the curtain. The denial of his Lord and Master stands 
recorded to this day, for everybody to lojok at. Nathan 
said to David, " Thou art the man." No concealment 
here. This blood-guiltiness of David stands out promi- 
nently in all its naked deformity. Behold the adulterer 
• and the murderer ! Take every instance of open trans- 
gression and public outlawry, from Genesis to Revela- 
tion — and is there any covering up of the offence, the 
guilt, or the criminality ; any thing like daubing with 
nntempered mortar, or prophesying smoothly? God 
speaks once, twice, three times — that all may see, all 
may hear, all may fear. These are Bible facts, placed 
on record for examples. The prophets called things by 
their right names, and so did the apostles. " Them 
that sin openly, rebuke openly, that others may fear." 
Paul tells Titus not only to rebuke these open trans- 
gressors, but to " rebuke them sharply." " Thou shalt 
in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin 
upon him." 

" I am not come to send peace on earth," saith the 
Lord, " but a sword."— Matt. x. 34. 

" Thy saints in all this glorious war 
Shall conquer, though they die ; 
They view the triumph from afar, 
By faith they bring it nigh. " 



AGITATING AND AGITATORS. 

AGITATE, AGITATE, AGITATE ! 

Keep on agitating ; cease not, day nor night. 

* Go boldly forth, and fear no ill, 

Though fierce oppressors rise ; 
Though trials gather thick and fast, 

And all the world be wrong : 
Onward, still onward to the last, 

And in the right be strong." 

Agitation is the soul, the life of salvation. Let agi- 
tation cease, and soon we are morally and spiritually 
dead- "Where agitation ceases, lips are sealed against 
popular sins, sins in high places — then formality, moral 
corruption, spiritual death. 

Suppose the sea, the vast ocean, ceases agitation by 
stormy winds, ebbings and Sowings, how soon it stag- 
nates, spreads disease, corruption, and putrefaction? 
So with ministers and people, whole denominations 
lose their vitality ; the life, the soul, the power, tho 
holy fire, become a stench, a hissing, a byword! The 
salt loses its savor. This is why so many have a namo 
to live and are dead ; they refuse to agitate, open their 
lips wide for God and his cause. Some of our most 
beautiful cities and villages are languishing, perishing, 
becoming moral pestilences, lazar-houses. The love of 
many waxes cold by ceasing to agitate, and the enemy 
rushes in like a flood. All this, and still more, is 

257 



258 THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 

the result of ceasing to agitate, to cry aloud and spare 
not. • 

Afraid to agitate ? Afraid to live ? Cease to agitate, 
you die the death. Where sin is, there must be agita- 
tion, else our world becomes a hell ! How was it in 
heaven when rebellion arose, the usurpation of Satan ? 
Agitation ! To arms ! to arms ! All heaven is in up- 
roar. Lightnings flash ! thunders crash ! The ele- 
ments melt with fervent heat, till Beelzebub and his 
legion are hurled— cast down to the pit bottomless ! 

Sin was cast out of heaven by agitation. "Where sin 
is, there is war — as in heaven, so in earth. Satan is 
now the same usurper, and nothing but continued agi- 
tation will dethrone him, chain him to the bottomless 
pit. The patriarchs were agitators. Moses was an 
agitator, noble, glorious ! He set all Egypt in a flame ! 
Nor did he cease to agitate till God's people were set 
at liberty, and oppressive Pharaoh and his host were 
drowned in the depths of the sea. Slavery was ban- 
ished from England by agitation — Wilberforce, the holy 
agitator, leading the van. And nothing but agita- 
tion hurled the snaky monster from our own nation. 
Praise the Lord for agitation and agitators. Lord, send 
them ! 

Moses was an agitator. Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Jere- 
miah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nehemiah, all who stood for 
God and the oppressed — a glorious band, mighty in 
words and in deeds. God wrought wonders by these 
holy agitators. John the Baptist was a noble, whole- 



THE SWORD THAT CUTS I 



259 



souled agitator, the forerunner of the Messiah, clad in 
camel's hair, ^ith a leathern girdle about his loins, 
feeding on locusts and wild honey. He blew the 
trumpet of agitation long and loud. He set Jerusalem 
and all Judea on fire by agitation. This great and 
holy man, one of the greatest ever conceived or born 
of woman, went on agitating till he agitated into 
heaven. God took him in the very midst of agitation. 
Glorious departure ! What an abundant entrance into 
the everlasting kingdom ! This one noble specimen 
of agitation has stimulated millions on millions to agi- 
tate and go on agitating forever and forever. 

" Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." 
Oh, for such agitators ! 

Christ was the greatest of all agitators, from the 
time he entered the public ministry till he hung on the 
cross. It was Christ's agitation that saved a lost 
world, brought life and immortality to light through 
the Gospel. It was Christ's agitation that led to his 
persecution and crucifixion. He came not to send 
peace on earth, but a sword. Agitation led him to tho 
cross, to glory at the right hand of the Father, where 
now he is worshipped by angels and glorified spirits, 
where every knee bows, of things in heaven, things on 
earth, crying, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
receive glory and honor, forever and forever ! 

Millions on millions of unborn souls will bless God 
as eternity rolls on, for this one example of agitation. 
The apostles and primitive disciples were agitators. 



\-7', 




SAMUEL AND ELI.— 1 Samuel i. and ii. 

" The little child who loves to pray, 

And read his Bible too, 
Shall rise above the sky one day, 

And sing as angels do • 
Shall live in heaven, that world above, 
Where all is joy, and peace, and love." 

Young readers, had we the pen of an angel, the 
fire of holy eloquence like to that of Isaiah or the 
Apostle Paul, we could not begin to portray the 
beauty of Samuel's character as it is portrayed by 
the inspired penman. 

His whole life, from infancy, was bright and 
shining, " apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
Like little Timothy, he knew the holy Scriptures 
from his childhood, and became wise unto salva- 
tion." His mother lent him to the Lord as long as 
he lived. See 1 Samuel, i. 26, 27. Though this 
dear child was surrounded by wicked influences, a 
corrupt priesthood, he kept his garments unspotted. 
He would not suffer sin to rest upon his neighbor. 

260 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 261 

"When Saul refused to obey God in the destruc- 
tion of the Amalekites, what did Samuel do ? heal 
slightly, prophesy smoothly, daub with untempered 
mortar? Hark! hear him. "Hath the Lord as 
great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in 
obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold ! to obey 
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat 
of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, 
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." 1 
Samuel, xv. 22, 23. 

Young friends, we entreat you, fail not to read 
the books of Samuel, first and second. They are 
gold, pure gold — gold seven times purified. 

" O precious book of love and truth, 
Of wisdom bright and fair ! 
Well may the olden and the youth 
Have thee in special care." 

Eead the Bible with a heart devoted to God. 
Have a fixed determination to give up every thing 
the Bible condemns, and to do the whole will of 
God. Bead the Scriptures practically. Keep in 
mind our Lord's direction, and depend upon his 
promise, " If any man will do his will, he shall know 
of the doctrine, whether it be of God." Benounce, 
then, your own will and affections, and devote your- 
self simply to the will and service of your Maker. 
Determine, in a better strength than your own, to 
" have respect unto oil God's commandments ;" and 
this will remove a thousand difficulties in under- 
standing and embracing the truth. 



SHOW YOUR COLORS— HANG OUT YOUR SIGN! 

" Stand up for Jesus ! all who lead His host ! 
Crowned with the splendors of the Holy Ghost ! 
Shrink from no foe, to no temptation yield, 
Urge on the triumphs of this glorious field — 
Stand up for Jesus." 

Readek, are you for Christ, or for the world and 
Belial ? Do you walk as the world walks, talk as the 
world talks, dress, eat, drink, rise up, lie down, go out, 
come in, make merry as the world does ? Your sign 
is out — " Belial" — read and known of all men. " By 
their fruits ye shall know them." " No man can serve 
two masters." 

Are you for Jesus ? Show your colors, hang out 
your sign — " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Do as Jesus 
did, walk in his steps, go about doing good as he did ; 
take up your cross and deny yourself, resist unto 
blood, striving against sin, as he did. 

"When you walk, let it be said of you, " There goes a 
Christian." " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts 
thereof." Rom. xiii. 14. 

Hoist your colors, and let your watchword be known. 
" Our conversation is in heaven, from whence Ave look 
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. iii. 20. 

Hang out your sign, unfold your colors, and let 
the record on your action be legible. 

262 



THE FIRE GOING OUT, GONE OUT! 

OR, 
DEAD CAPITAL IN OUR CHURCHES. 

"There's words and there's pens to be wielded, 
There's thoughts that must die if unsaid ; 
Wouldst thou saunter and pine among roses, 
Or sepulchre dreams that are dead?" 

Who can estimate the vast amount of dead capital, 
the unsanctified talent in all our churches ? 

From every point of observation we see slumbering 
energies, buried talents, forcing conviction on the mind 
that the great mass of professing Christians are at ease 
in Zion. 

Hundreds and thousands have never put forth one 
single earnest effort to persuade men to become recon- 
ciled to God. They are waiting for the Church to do 
the work that they are required individually to do ; 
and under the delusion that the Church has duties 
separate from those of her individual members, man}' 
excuse themselves from all personal labor. 

This is a fundamental error of the age, a practical 
heresy of the most pernicious and deadly influence ! 
The Church was never designed to absorb, so as to 
neutralize the personal element, and to render it more 
effective — that every energy, and influence,. and power 
might tell in the great work of saving souls. And 
yet the dead capital in every church is very great. 

263 



WAITING FOR A CALL, ARE YOU? 

HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO WAIT? 

44 Why stand ye here all the day idle?" — Matt xx. 6. 

"Why do you idle stand? 

There is something for all to do ; 
Look forth on the wants of our teeming land — 
The sorrow and sin on every hand ; 

Say, is there no work for you ? 
There is work in the crowded street; 

There is work in the silent cell; 
'Mid the noisiest hum and the busiest feet; 
In halls where thronging multitudes meet, 

In the hovel where outcasts dwell.' , 

A Stand-still Fire, or Do-nothing Holiness. Can 
such a thing be ? Here is a professed minister of the 
Gospel waiting for a call to some parish, some opening 
for ministerial labor. Some four or five years since, 
this same pulpit orator inquired of us for a vacant pul- 
pit, where he could hold forth ^ the word of life ; and 
here he is still waiting, while fields are white for the 
harvest in every direction. 

Multitudes on every side are perishing for lack of 
spiritual food. Thousands on thousands are rushing 
on to woe eternal before the eyes of this ministerial 
brother — and yet no opening for labor in God's vine- 
yard. He is still waiting for a call, when all heaven 
and earth ring peal on peal with lightnings'/a^ and 
thunders' crash ! "Why stand ye here all the day idle ?" 
" Go ivork in my vineyard" 

264 



DRAGGING AND LAGGING. 

IT IS THE DRAGGING THAT KILLS FOLKS. 

" The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." — 2 Cor. iii. 6. 

It is the dragging that kills so many, not preaching 
or hard study. The machinery is not oiled by the 
grace of God — the Holy Spirit's sanctifying influences. 
Consequently, students, editors, ministers of the Gospel, 
superannuate, drag out a wretched imbecile life. It is 
the "dragging" that kills them, does the mischief — the 
lack of soul, spiritual life, holy unction, animation, 
power with God, the tongue of fire, the not breathing 
the life apostolical and pentecostal. Did Paul, Peter, 
James, or John retire from their fields of labor till 
they had fought the good fight, finished their course with 
joy ? Preaching in the Spirit with power from on high 
is healthy work — the more of it the better. Instance 
the immortal Wesley, whose whole life was on the per- 
petual stretch for glory till threescore and ten. Who 
ever labored harder, studied more intensely, preached 
more constantly ? He could preach three times daily, 
with soul kindled to a flame, year in and year out, and 
then mount up on eagle's wings, or as Elijah in a 
chariot of fire, to receive a crown that fadeth not. His 
eye, like that of Moses, was not dim, nor his natural 
force abated. 

The same is true of Whitfield, the Tenants, and other 
evangelists on mercy's wing. 

265 



"WHERE NO WOOD IS, THE FIRE GOETH OUT." 

REVIVALS HINDERED — THE WORK OF GRACE. 

" Turn you at my reproof." — Prov. i. 23. 

Eeyivals hindered. When ? how ? 

1. Neglecting to enforce proper discipline. Achang 
are in the camp ; Israel cannot move a step. " A little 
leaven leaveneth the whole lump." 

2. Variances in the Church unreconciled. "If ye 
bite and devour one another, take heed ye be not con- 
sumed one of another." 

3. Neglect of suitable confession or restitution. 

4. Neglect of fasting and humiliation. 

5. Long prayers and exhortations, without any point, 
pith, soul, or special aim. 

6. A few principal members occupying most of the 
time in prayer and conference meetings, while others are 
silent, or not called upon. Euinous ! 

7. For some brother to rise in the meeting and say, 
" There is a lion in the way, a lion !" Awful ! 

8. Not praying to the point, fervently, in faith, in 
the Holy Spirit, perseveringly, Jacob-like, saying, " I 
ivill not let thee go." 

9. Neglecting to bring all the tithes into the store- 
house. 

10. Preaching without the Holy Spirit, point, pith, 
condensation, practical application, and not making 
every one feel, " Thou art the man." 

266 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 267 

11. Preaching three long sermons on the Sabbath to 
one congregation. 

12. Beading sermons instead of preaching them. 

13. Preaching on popular subjects, merely to excite 
public attention, without special aim at holiness of 
heart and life, or the conviction or conversion of sin- 
ners. Quite common. 

14. The life, out of the pulpit, not corresponding with 
the life in the pulpit. Alas, how frequent ! 

15. Preaching to sinners over the heads of lukewarm, 
worldly-minded, covetous church-members ! Horrible ! 

16. Neglecting to break up the fallow ground 
thoroughly, remove every stumbling-block, and elevate 
the Church to a holy standard. 

17. Not making every church-member feel that he 
has something to do. 

18. Not removing every drone from the hive. 

19. Neglect of faithful and continued pastoral and 
church visitations. 

20. Preachers carrying on other kinds of business, 
and not giving their whole time, talents, and soul to 
the work. 

21. Want of union — united and hearty co-operation 
between the Church and the minister. 

22. Narcotic poisons — tobacco, opium, etc. — Though 
their power to excite the baser passions may not equal 
that of alcohol, yet their sedative effects, in destroying 
the sensibilities, as effectually incapacitates its victim 
for spiritual exercises. Though those under the in- 



268 THE SWORD THAT CUTS : 

fluence of narcotics, or of alcohol, may appear to 
themselves and others quite devotional; may w:ite, 
preach, pray, and exhort ; it is all spurious — the offer- 
ing of strange fire. God abhors it ! 

23. Another stumbhng-block or hindrance to revivals 
and an onward movement of salvation is light, popular 
readmg — works of fiction, novels, romances, fashion- 
plate magazines, and comicals. These are the most 
potent engines the devil ever planted upon the earth, to 
undermine the principles of virtue and subvert the 
morality of the Bible. They drive individuals from 
the sanctuary, close the Bible, aMenate the heart from 
God, and plunge the soul into temporal ruin and eter- 
nal death ! 

24. Again : one great and special hindrance to revi- 
vals in our cities, is worldly and carnal excitements, 
" picnic religion," sitting down to eat and drink, and 
" rising up to play." 

Is money to be raised for church debts, church build- 
ing or repairing ? for a Sabbath-school or a mission- 
ary enterprise? for the increase of the minister's 
salary ? is money wanted to relieve the poor or for 
any benevolent operation ? "What now ? How is this 
money to be forthcoming ? In a sober, rational, Gospel 
way ? Nay, a feast is prepared ; a soiree introduced, a 
fancy fair, a picnic, a concert or exhibition of some 
kind, a donation, tea, or strawberry party, a sleigh-ride, 
oyster-supper, a tin or gold wedding, something to in- 
flame the passions, excite and enlarge the appetite, 



HINDRANCES TO REVIVALS.— Continued. 

" Why stand ye here all the day idle?" 

" The fields were all white with the harvest, 
But the reapers were few." 

25. Preaching without meaning somebody — away off, to 
the inhabitants of the moon, or some distant planet, 
without special aim, object, or practical application ; 
without bringing the truth of the Gospel home to every 
heart, every conscience. Alas ! how many sermons are 
lost, worse than lost, by this milk and water, " linsey- 
woolsey" system, this half-hearted indefiniteness ! 

Did John the Baptist preach thus ? When the Phar- 
isees and Sadducees came to his baptism, what did he 
say ? " Peace, peace," when there was no peace ? Hark ! 
" O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee 
from the wrath to come?" Matt. iii. 7-10. 

When some were, present that told Jesus of the Gal- 
ileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, 
Jesus answering said unto them, "Suppose ye that 
those Galileans were sinners above all Galileans, be- 
cause they suffered such things ? I tell you nay ; but 
except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." Every 
heart must be probed to the bottom, every Achan 
searched, every Agag and false hope slain. Awake, 
awake ! 

26. Not keeping the track — following up sermon after 

269 



270 THE SWORD THAT CUTS: 

sermon, conviction after conviction, till the fallow 
ground is mellowed, thoroughly broken up — till the 
Syrians in Aphek are consumed. Elisha said to the 
king of Israel : " Smite on the ground. And he smote 
thrice and ceased. And the man of God was wroth 
with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five 
or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou 
hadst consumed it ; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria 
but thrice." 2 Kings, xiii. 18, 19. 

27. The ungodly, disobedient, conscience-seared children 
of Christian professors, is another special hindrance to 
revivals or the conversion of sinners ! 

"What stumbling-block can be greater than the awful, 
horrible, heaven-daring inconsistency of parental train- 
ing! Parents pledge themselves, enter into solemn 
covenant, ratify the same in the presence of God, angels, 
and men — vow, most positively, to train their children 
for God, loholly for God, and then trample this vow 
under foot, stamp it down! suffer their little ones to 
grow up in the service of Satan, play truant, drink the 
cup of pollution to its very dregs ! Look at that 
Christian mother, decking her daughter in robes of 
gayety, fashion, and folly — for what? Moloch? for 
hell ? or for heaven ? For. the inquiry-meeting, or for 
some sinful amusement, some pleasure-party — the 
dance, the ball-room, the foolish and fashionable con- 
cert? 

Is not the course of some parents sufficient to Mil a 
revival — extinguish the last spark of holy kindling? 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 271 

drive away every serious and solemn thought of re- 
pentance, of death, judgment, and eternity ? 

Oh, woman, where is thy faith ? Wilt thou murder 
the soul? 

28. The ungodly, reckless, conscience-seared, case-hard- 
ened children of ministers. Oh, what tears of blood are 
called for ! What killed this influence of Eli, the priest 
of God ? What poured out the vials of God Almighty's 
wrath on his devoted head ? His sons were vile, and 
he restrained them not. A minister may speak with 
the tongues of men and of angels, and what avail, so 
long as he violates, openly and continually, a prom- 
inent, a special requisition of ministerial qualification ? 
His words fall comparatively powerless. The cry, 
" Physician, heal thyself," rings ! 

29. Sectarianism — the many-headed monster ! 

Perhaps there is no greater hindrance to the conver- 
sion of sinners, the final triumph of the gospel, than 
party spirit, a spirit of rivalship — " I am of Paul, I am 
of Apollos, I am of Cephas." What is this but selfish- 
ness, hateful and abominable in the sight of God and 
man, a stumbling-block over which thousands and mil- 
lions have stumbled into the bottomless pit ! When- 
ever and wherever God's people have laid aside their 
" Shibboleths," their selfishness, childishness, narrow- 
mindedness, and bigotry, united honestly and heartily 
in demolishing Satan's kingdom, has not God invaria- 
bly poured out a blessing uncontainable ? 



LOVING FOLKS, HONEYING FOLKS. 

" Speak with earnest, holy daring ; 
Zion's children heavenward go, 
Duties doing, crosses bearing. 

" I love everbody." 

You do, friend ? how much ? And what kind of love 
is it? Bible? the love of the holy prophets and 
apostles — of Jesus Christ ? Is your love Gospel ? If 
not it is spurious, false, sickly, sentimental, or hypocri- 
tical. Does this love of yours lead you to obey God in 
rebuking sin of every kind, rise up against evil-doers, 
and stand up against the w r orkers of iniquity — reprove, 
rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine ? 

Have you the love of Phineas, when he executed 
judgment, and the plague w r as stayed? (See Num. 
xxv. 7, 8.) ^ Have you the love of Nathan the prophet, 
when he said to King David, " Thou art the man ?" 
Have you the love of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, who set their faces like a flint against 
every sin, cried aloud and spared not? Have you 
Samuel's love, who hewed Agag to pieces, and re- 
proved King Saul to his face for his wickedness ? 

Have you the love of John the Baptist, who laid the 
axe at the root of all evil, rebuked Herod for his incest, 
at the risk of his head, and who said to self-righteous 
Sadducees and Pharisees, "O generation of vipers, 
who hath warned you to flee from the w T rath to come ?" 

272 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 273 

Matt. v. 7, 8. Is your love like Paul's love, who said to 
Elymas the sorcerer, "O full of all subtlety and all 
mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all 
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right 
ways of the Lord?" Acts, xiii. 10, 11. 

If you have not the love here specified, it is spurious, 
false, sickly, sentimental, hypocritical. Indeed, what 
you call love is hatred. " Thou shalt not hate thy 
brother in thy heart ; thou shalt in any wise rebuke 
him, and not suffer sin to rest upon him." Lev. xix. 17. 
"Be not deceived ; God is not mocked." 

Some parents profess to love their children very 
much, but how much do they love them ? enough to 
subdue their stubborn wills and restrain them from 
wickedness? What kind of love was Eli's toward 
Hophni and Phineas, sons of Belial ? Did he love them 
well enough to correct them betimes, teach them to 
obey God, have respect unto all His commandments ? 
"What did God think of Eli's love in household dis- 
cipline ? Turn to 1 Sam. ii. 27. How readest thou ? 
What kind, of love was David's toward his children, in 
letting them do as they pleased, serve Satan and their 
own lusts, pride, and ambition ? 

How many parents love their children in the same 
way ! Eli and David suffered their " little ones" to 
grow up in idleness, in all manner of sin and folly, to 
live as they listed, to be " lovers of pleasures more 
than lovers of God." Instead of love, God calls this 
hatred. " He that spareth the rod, hateth his son ; but 



274 THE SWORD THAT CUTS : 

he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." Prov. 
xiii. 24. 

Beloved reader, do you love enough to confess your 
faults, to go to those you have injured, jind on your 
bended knees make hearty confession ? If not, your 
love is spurious, false. We know a church-member 
who professes to " love everybody," even with a sancti- 
fied love ; and this same individual has been instru- 
mental in sundering the tenderest ties of kindred love 
and affection, marring the peace of families and the 
peace of Jerusalem, sufficient to cause angels to weep 
tears of blood. And yet he asserts his innocence, and 
refuses to make any reparation or confession of his guilt, 
or acknowledge the evil he has done and is now doing ; 
meanwhile, he continues his profession of perfect love. 
Could Satan himself desire a love better calculated to 
suit his infernal purposes? "He that hateth his 
brother is in darkness, and knoweth not whither he 
goeth, because that darkness (sin) hath blinded his 
eyes." 1 John, ii. 11. 

"We know a flaming professor, professing to "love 
everybody," while at the same time the words of his 
mouth, the tone of his voice, the look of his eye, and 
every moving muscle of his face betrays him, gives the 
lie to his professions. We have meetings for prayer, 
praise, and testimony so full of this kind of love, that 
the individuals composing them have so much love they 
cannot find it in their loving hearts to rebuke popular 
sins, staring them full in the face. Is this the love 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 275 

God requires? or is it spurious, false, sickly, senti- 
mental ? 

To profess to " love everybody" is popular and fash- 
ionable ; it requires very little, if any, self-denying or 
cross-bearing. One can profess love, perfect love, the 
love that " loves everybody," and the Lord with all his 
" heart, soul, and strength," and still love the world, be 
proud and covetous, follow worldly fashions, adorn the 
exterior with artificials, "gold, pearls, and costly 
array," read novels, romances, silly love-tales, talk non- 
sense, attend pleasure-parties, fancy fairs, sit down, eat, 
drink, make merry, and rise up to play, sip the wine- 
cup and brandy-bottle, chew and smoke tobacco, wink 
at popular sins in the pulpit and out of it, advocate the 
doctrine of expediency and compromise, carry religion 
in one hand, the world, sin, and Satan in the other. 

Friends, is this exaggeration ? "We speak that we 
do know, and testify that we have seen." 

" Who is the honest man ? 
He that doth still and strongly good pursue ; 
' To God, his neighbor, and himself most true ; 
Whom neither force nor fawning can 
Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due." 



Any minister or editor, who will be cramped in his 
public or private ministrations, by a conservative 
Church — who will not be free, outspoken against all 
sin, in the name of God, is unworthy a place in the 
pulpit or editorial chair. 




SIN A DAGGER— TERRIBLE ! 



Have you not felt it, reader, piercing your inmost 
soul ? " Sin is a dagger, more fearful than the dagger 
of Ehud, which had two edges, of a cubit's length." 
Judges, iii. 16. 

Bitter to sin — more bitter than death. The rebel 
angels found it so ; so did our first parents ; so did Ja- 
cob, Moses, David, Solomon, Peter. The redeemed soul 
feels it keenly, heart-piercingly. Every one having 
tasted the sweets of redeeming love, sees clearly how 
hateful, abominable, God-dishonoring, soul-ruinous, 
soul-damning sin is. It's the serpent's bite, the adder's 
sting. It crucifies the Lord of glory afresh, drives the 
cruel nails, poises the bloody spear ! Oh ! what pangs 
of remorse does sin bring upon a consecrated soul ! It 
is like a dagger ! 

When Christ looked on Peter, after his denial of him, 
he went out and wept bitterly. " Even the smallest 
transgressions," says Madame Guyon, " cannot fail to 
separate from God. The wretchedness it produces is 
inexpressible. An unguarded look, a hasty word, cost 
me bitter tears." 

276 



THE TONGUE, AND TONGUE-TAMING. 

" If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, 
Five things observe with care : 
To whom you speak, of whom you speak, 
And hoic, and when, and where? 

Reader, do you think before you speak ? Better do 
it ; one slip of the tongue, unguarded, may do great 
mischief. 

Look up — be on the watch-tower. The Psalmist 
prayed earnestly for a watch to be placed at the door 
of his lips. He promised the Lord also that he would 
bridle his tongue, especially in the presence of the 
wicked or ungodly. " The tongue of the wise useth 
knowledge aright." " A wholesome tongue is a tree of 
life." "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge." 
" The heart of the righteous studieth to answer ; but 
the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things." 
Prov. xv. 28. " Be more ready to hear," says Solomon, 
"than to give the sacrifice of fools." "Be not rash 
with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter 
anything before God, for God is in heaven and thou 
upon earth : therefore let thy words be few." " A fool's 
voice is known by a multitude of words." 

James says : " If a man offend not in word, the same 
is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body." 

These passages from inspiration of God are appli- 
cable both to prayer and conversation. 

277 



ALL TALK, AND NO JESUS. 

" A child of words and not of deeds, 
Is like a garden full of weeds." 

Talk and laugh, laugh and talk ? Yes, you do ; we 
see it, hear it, and are sick of it. When a friend calls, 
you talk and laugh, laugh and talk. Why not read the 
Bible a little, pray a little, talk about Jesus a little, 
things spiritual, heavenly, divine ? You meet a friend 
in the street, by the wayside, at school, the social 
party. You talk and laugh, laugh and talk, and not a 
word about Jesus, salvation, light, hope, joy unspeak- 
able, glory, glory ! It is all " small-talk," no Jesus 
in it. 

You meet around the table, the fireside, in the sitting- 
room, the parlor. You talk and laugh, laugh and talk, 
and it is all " small-talk" — no Jesus in it. You talk and 
talk, laugh and laugh, giggle and giggle ; but what 
about Jesus, life, soul-life, life that is life, life now, 
life everlasting ? Where, oh w r here ? 

You travel in the stage-coach, the steamboat, the 
rail-car. You talk and laugh, laugh and talk — anything 
about Jesus, heaven, heaven's glories, glory on glory ? 
Not a word. You talk and laugh, laugh and talk, day 
in and day out, week in and week out ; but where is 
Jesus, the light, the life, the hope of glory ? It is all 
" small-talk," and no Jesus in it. 

Church folks ? Certainly. 

278 



LAUGH AT THIS; LAUGH AT THAT. 

" A pleasant smile for every face, 
Oh, 'tis a blessed thing ; 
It will the lines of care erase, 
And spots of beauty bring." 

Laugh ? Yes, you may : it is right to laugh — to 
laugh heartily, with all the heart, soul, and life. There 
is no harm in the exercise of laughing. The Lord would 
never bestow the faculty for laughing were it sinful to 
laugh. To laugh in the spirit is scriptural. We 
have authority for laughing from the highest source. 
It is no part of Christianity to make sad the counte- 
nance, disfiguring the face, which should be sunny under 
the sunshine of a pure conscience — of a loving God. 

To laugh, in the Bible sense of the term, is not only 
commendable and praiseworthy, but healthful to spirit, 
soul, and body — invigorating, lifegiving. We are to 
laugh to the glory of God as truly and heartily as we 
are to eat, drink, sleep, or whatever we do. If the 
ploughing of the wicked is sin, is not their laugh also ? 
The apostle tells us, " Whatsoever ye do, in word or in 
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving 
thanks unto God and the Father by Him." Col, iii. 17. 

There are various kinds of laughing, as there are 
various kinds of talking. There is the vain laugh, the 
silly laugh, the foolish, nonsensical laugh, common to 
the world — to persons of weak minds, of corrupt, un- 

279 



280 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 



sanctified hearts. In this kind of laughter " the heart 
is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness." 
Prov. xiv. 13. 

Individuals given to light and frivolous reading are 
• almost sure to be tinctured with this foolish, nonsensi- 
cal laughter ; they laugh at mere trifles — at their own 
follies and mistakes, and the follies and mistakes of 
others. They often laugh without knowing what they 
are laughing at, or laugh because they see and hear 
others laugh. 

It is fashionable to laugh, and to laugh at trifles, or 
things not worth laughing at. When a fashion is once 
introduced, no matter how absurd, foolish, ridiculous, 
or soul-destroying, it will be followed, more or less, by 
the world and the Church. Is it fashionable to read 
nonsensical things, talk nonsensical things, and laugh 
at nonsensical things ? These fashions are followed by 
professors and non-professors. Fashion rules the 
world and curses the world. What wicked fashion will 
the devil introduce next ? 

" Trifle not ; for from the fulness 

Of the heart the mouth doth speak, 
And from clear and rock-bound fountains 
Never will foul waters break." 

Foolish talking and jes'ing, and foolish laughing, go 
hand in hand with foolish reading, the light, insipid, 
ephemeral publications of the day. This kind of 
laughing is grating to the ear, heart-sickening and cor- 
rupting. 



THE SWORD THAT CUTS I 281 

Again, there is a holy laugh, a laugh of repentance, 
faith, hope, joy — joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
This holy laughter, proceeding from a pure heart, a 
heart of joyfulness in God, is frequently alluded to in 
the Scriptures. Abraham laughed at the prospect of a 
son in his old age — fell on his face and laughed. Gen. 
xvii. 17. "When the Lord turned the captivity of 
Zion .... then our mouth was filled with laughter, 
and our tongue with singing." Psalm cxxvi. 1, 2. 
"Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh." 
Luke, vi. 21. 

Persons filled with faith and the Holy Spirit are fre- 
quently constrained to laugh — give vent to their joyful 
emotions in laughter. This holy laughter is not only 
commendable, but blessed in its effects ; it is blessed 
to the one who laughs thus joyfully, and likewise to 
those who hear it. This laughing that originates from 
the Holy Spirit's operations on the soul exhilarates— 
carries a sanctifying thrill of ecstatic joy to those w T ho 
love the truth, and often strikes home conviction power- 
fully to the hearts of unbelievers. 

With this kind of laughing God is well pleased ; it is 
unselfish, benevolent, and redounds to His glory. Oh 
for a host of such laughers — the world over ! 

Again, there is a cheerful laugh or smile playing 
upon the lips of the upright in heart — a constant, sweet, 
heavenly complacency beaming forth upon the coun- 
tenances of the pure in thought and life, like the dis- 
tilling dews of heaven, or the rain upon the mown 



A Word on Cheerfulness. 



" If self must be denied, 

And sin no more caressed, 
They rather choose the way that's wide, 
And strive to think it best." 



Be cheerful? Certainly, who questions it? "Who is 
cheerful ? the sinner in his sins ? Novel writers, pub- 
lishers, readers and puffers? Was Ahab cheerful, and 
his wife Jezebel ? the bloody Manasseh ? Balaam the 
false prophet? Simon Magus the sorcerer? Ananias 
and Sapphira, who kept back part of the price? Alex- 
ander the copper-smith ? Is Satan cheerful ? Friend, 
you talk about cheerfulness, what "do you mean by it, 
serving the Lord or Satan ? 

Who is cheerful and who has a right to cheerfulness ? 
God's true servants or Satan's ? Cheerfulness is a 
Christian grace — the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and is as 
far from levity, lightness of speech, foolish talking and 
jesting as light is from darkness, as heaven is from 
hell. A man that has God in his soul, fire pentecostal, 
fire on fire for doing good, in imitation of his Lord 
and Master, does not trouble himself about being 
cheerful or how he shall be amused. Nor does he go 
in for games, chess, checkers, nine-pins, billiards, domi- 
noes, bagatelle, back-gammon, charades, conundrums, 
or the giddy dance in the parlor or out of it. These 

282 



A WORD ON CHEERFULNESS. 283 

are Satan's implements to kill time, and murder the 
soul ! * 

Nor does he go in for " tittle-tattle," senseless gabble, 
and the fool's laughter. Furthermore lie does not en- 
courage children in rompings, frivolity, fun and frolic, i 
vulgar and boisterous merriment, buffoonery or monkey- 
isms. He has no idea of serving the Lord a little and 
the old Serpent the devil, a good deal. Christ is his 
portion, his life, his heaven, his all in all, for time and 
eternity. 

" All our capacious powers can wish, 
In Thee most richly meet ; 
Not to our eyes is light so dear, 
Nor friendship half so sweet." 

All the pleasure that is found in social parties, novel 
reading, or games of chance, for mere amusement, will 
prove in the end to have been too dearly purchased. 
Such pleasure-seeking on the part of Christians dis- 
tracts their attention from worthy objects, renders 
them barren of religious enjoyment, and destroys their 
Christian influence with the impenitent. It is equiva- 
lent to acknowledging that there is not enough in the 
religion of the Bible to employ and satisfy the mind. 
This is an alarming inference ; but there is no escape 
from it. 

The religion of the Bible rejoices the soul, tills it 



* Sorry? Who ain't ? weepingly, that the " Young Men's Christian 
Association" have fallen into these traps of Satan, mixing up Christ 
with Belial, in their reading-rooms and departments of recreation. 
The Lord frown upon this wickedness ? He has, he does, he will. 



284 A WORD ON CHEERFULNESS. 

with unspeakable delight. The word of God is 
sweeter to the taste than honey or the honey-comb. 
Those who most fully appreciate the magnitude of 
the duties of life — the work of living for eternity — 
^will have the least concern about pleasure of any 
kind. 

We kindly and respectfully say to that D.D.in Brook- 
lyn, who makes funny speeches at tin and gold wed- 
dings: " Dear sir, when you and your family are seated 
around the table spread with fox and geese, chess, or 
checkers, and other games of chance (stepping-stones 
to the gambling-table, which you enjoin parents to in- 
troduce) whiling away precious, golden seasons, ac- 
companied with lightness of speech and frivolity at 
your tongue's end — do you ever picture to yourself 
how Jesus would appear thus at the head of a table, 
and the twelve apostles around him ? 

Sir, we have been at a loss, frequently, in deciding 
whether you were doing more evil or more good in the 
world ; whether you were doing more to further the 
cause of Satan than that of the Lord. ' Hope de- 
ferred maketh the heart sick.' " 

" The church and world amalgamate 
A union worse than that of state." 

All who walk with God are serious, taking their 
Lord for their example, and walking by Scripture pre- 
cepts and warnings. 

"But, are we to renounce all mirth, and be dull and 
melancholy ?" Answer. Seriousness and solid happi- 
ness are inseparable. 



A WORD ON CHEERFULNESS. 285 

"Is there not time for all things?" Answer. There 
is no time for sin and folly. " Every idle word that men 
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day 
of judgment." "If any man among you seemeth to 
be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceivetir 
his own heart, this man's religion is vain." — James 
i. 26. 

We are not unaware of the value of a cheerful re- 
ligion. We respond to the reasonableness of the com- 
mand to "rejoice evermore." And yet we read that 
the "joy of the Lord is your strength," and that our 
rejoicing must be in God to make it a religious joy. 
It is not a religious joy, w T here professedly religious 
men indulge in gratifications that are worldly, sensual, 
and frivolous. 

A passion for amusement wastes time, enfeebles the 
body, dissipates the mind, destroys usefulness, and 
leads to great expense. " He that loveth pleasure," 
says Solomon, " shall be a poor man." 

" Fathers, mothers, when your sons 

Look to you for daily bread, 
Dare ye, in mock'ry, load with stones 

The table that for them is spread ? 
How can ye hope your sons will live, 
If ye, for fish, a serpent give ? " 



Amusements and Recreations. 



1 Be hopeful, cheerful — faith will bring 
A living joy to thee, 
And make thy life a hymn of praise, 

From doubt and murmurs free ; 
Whilst like the sunbeam thou wilt bless, 
And bring to others happiness." 



Object to amusements for little folks or great folks ? 
When — on what occasion ? ~Not a breath of it. We 
delight to see every one, little and big, mounting up 
on eagles' wings joyfully. 

Sooner hush the tuneful lark, tie the legs of the skip- 
ping squirrel, stop the flowers from blooming, or the 
woods and the fields from growing green, as deprive 
the buoyant youtli of innocent recreation. 

The question is not between amusements and no 
amusements, but between those that are innocent and 
those that are hurtful. The world is on fire for some- 
thing to feed the passions, gratify a corrupt taste. 
Volumes on volumes are written, regions above and 
regions below ransacked to amuse. The rush is per- 
petual after the ephemeral or evanescent, the thirst to 
sip at the foul sediment of corrupt pleasure, which, at 
last, biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder ! 
when every sunbeam is winged with glory, every snow- 
flake drops heavenly benedictions from the skies for 
our pleasure. 

286 



AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS. 287 

God is love. Gladness meets us at every step ; our 
walks, our rides, our pleasant labor, our social inter- 
views, our books, our innocent, virtuous, hallowed fes- 
tivities, afford ample and varied means for rational 
exhilaration. Who, then, but a fool or a madman, 
would plunge into the whirl of fashionable dissipation? 

Some of the amusements we consider lawful and 
innocent, and which may be safely recommended to 
persons enjoying health, strength of body and mind, 
are gardening, walking and riding, sacred music, draw- 
ing, painting, botany, a survey of natural and artificial 
curiosities, the use of the globes, the telescope, the 
microscope, useful company, agreeable conversation, 
and entertaining books. 

The cultivation of flowers, besides being a healthful 
exercise for young ladies, softens the disposition and 
refines the taste. You will almost invariably find that 
the woman who likes to cultivate these beauties of 
nature is a kind and affectionate companion, and keeps 
a well-ordered household. It also gives them a taste 
for the beautiful, and the mind will naturally pass to a 
love of all that is grand and sublime in nature. Even 
the Saviour drew some of his most excellent illustra- 
tions from the " lilies of the field.'* 

What is better calculated to ennoble and elevate the 
human mind than studying the works of the Great 
Architect of the universe ? 

" Behold the boundless store 

Of charms which nature to her votary yields, 
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, 
The pomp of groves, the garniture of fields, 



288 AMUSEMENTS AND EECREATIONS. 

All the genial ray of morning yields, 
All that echoes to the song of even, 

All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, 
And all the dread magnificence of heaven." 

"Let us not so wrong and vilify the bounties of 
Providence, as to allow for a moment that the sources 
of innocent amusement are so rare that men must be 
driven, almost by constraint, to such as are of doubt- 
ful quality. On the contrary, such has been the Crea- 
tor's goodness, that almost every one alike of our 
physical, intellectual, and moral faculties, and the same 
may be said of the whole creation which we see around 
us, is not only calculated to answer the proper end of 
its being by its subserviency to some purpose of solid 
usefulness, but to be the instrument of administering 
pleasure. 

" Our Maker, also, in his kindness, has so constructed 
us, that even mere vicissitude is grateful and refresh- 
ing, a consideration which should prompt us often to 
seek, from a prudent variation of useful pursuits, that 
recreation for which we are apt to resort to what is 
altogether unproductive and useless. 

" Yes, rich and multiplied are the springs of inno- 
cent relaxation. The Christian relaxes in the tem- 
perate use of all the gifts of Providence. Imagi- 
nation, and taste, and genius, and the beauties of 
creation, and the works of art, lie open to him. He 
relaxes in the feast of reason, in the intercourse 
of society, in the sweets of friendship, in the endear- 
ments of love, in the exercises of hope, of confi- 



AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS. 289 

dence, of joy, of gratitude, of universal good-will, of 
all the benevolent and generous affections, which, 
by the gracious ordinance of our Creator, while they 
disinterestedly intend only happiness to others, are 
most surely productive to us of complacency and 
peace." 

We might mention numerous other things equally 
innocent and useful ; but this is sufficient to prove how 
easy we may be amused, without running after the 
silly frivolities of an unsanctified world, and which, 
under the pretence of enjoying necessary recreations, 
debase our nature, and involve us in misery and dis- 
grace. 

All will agree that it is the first duty of parents to 
make home as pleasant as it can be made, and where 
loving hearts are moved by the wisdom which is from 
above, there will be little danger of the introduction 
of forbidden or dangerous indulgence. The cultiva- 
tion of the domestic affections is one of the chief 
sources of enjoyment, and it is the great safeguard 
against vicious habits. We find cause for alarm in the 
disposition so manifestly prevalent, to foster the desire 
for social dissipation. Gay parties are not calculated 
to make the quiet of home more attractive to young 
people who, from early childhood, have been taught 
the way of life through Jesus Christ. Parents, who 
have the Lord for their portion, have no need of 
worldly amusements to make homes attractive — their 
households will be all aglow with the presence of the 
blessed Saviour. 



290 AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS, 

" As bird from fowler's share set free, 
Soaring sings ' Sweet Libert}- ! ' 
As the roe from the hunter's hand, 
Darting, bounds o'er stream and land ; 
So, from Satan's slavish band, 
So, from this world's iron hand 
Our soul 's set free ! "* 

Recreation is a demand of our nature, and is profita- 
ble not only for young people, but for children of 
larger growth also. The important question is, What 
kind of amusement should be allowed ? The taste for 
games of hazard is growing upon our people, until 
gambling is rapidly becoming a national vice, and it is, 
therefore, questionable whether any game of "chance," 
however innocent it may seem in itself, has not in it a 
tendency to cultivate a desire for the excitement of 
technical gambling. 

" A ■ man's heart deviseth his way ; but the Lord 
directeth his steps." — Prov. xvi. 9. 



* " Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your 
labor for that which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently, and eat ye 
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Ho ! 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
out money and without price." — Isa. lv. 2, 1. "0 that men were 
wise, that they understood this ! " 



EARTHLY BLISS UNSATISFYING, EVANESCENT. 

" The spider's most attenuated thread 
Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie 
On earthly bliss ; it breaks at every breeze. 1 ' 

The pleasures of this world are so transitory and fleet- 
ing, that it seems a crime for man to pass his days in 
frivolous pursuits, or stake, as many do, their whole mind 
upon what, before to-morrow's sun shall go down, will 
become as mist and vapor. The uncertainty of life, the 
dark veil whfch covers the future from the piercing eye of 
man, the ignorance of w T hat a day may bring forth, have a 
salutary effect upon the thoughtful, and wean them from a 
too great love of the world and its pleasures, or of them- 
selves. Though there be a few that live to the age of 
threescore years and ten, it is no guarantee that we shall 
live till then. Health and youth are not to be relied on, 
for the nipping frost often destroys in an hour the fairest 
flower, and the lightning from heaven often rends the 
sturdy oak. If w r e place our hearts upon the riches of the 
world, they fade away before our sight, and the hard 
earnings of years perish in a day. 

" Why should we lay up treasures here below, 
Where moth and rust corrupt ? Why fix our heart 
On that from which so quickly .we must part ? 

Why on an ocean where such tempests blow, 

Embark so rich a freight ? Why, 'midst the snow ' 
Of so unkind a winter, plant a flower 
So fragrant, yet so frail ! Why build Hope's tower 

Where lightnings flash and whelming torrents flow ! 
But if our highest energies are bent 

In God and heaven a portion to insure, 

291 




Hi«5^ 



WINTER, WINTER! WHAT A LESSON! 

Young friends and old friends, do you consider how 
many ways God speaks — gives line upon line ? Nature 
speaks, the Bible, the word of grace. The heavens de- 
clare the glory of God, the varied seasons — summer and 
winter, spring and autumn. The spring season pic- 
tures youth, blooming life ; winter is emblematical of 
old age, declining years, tottering on the grave's brink. 

" We take no note of time 
But from its loss : to give it then a tongue 
Is wise in man." 

How fleetly the passing moments glide away ! How 
soon are life's golden dreams and bright visions of 

292 



THE FIRE THAT BURNS. 293 

worldly bliss forever flown! Time, ever-rolling time, 
writes the impress of decay everywhere, and upon 
everything we behold in this beautiful world of ours. 
There is nothing of earthly beauty or of earthly gran- 
deur that can bid defiance to the storms of time, or 
nothing too sacred or holy to elude the destruction of 

its fatal blast ! 

" I saw him grasp the oak — 
It fell ; the tower — it crumbled ; and the stone, 
The sculptured monument, that marked the grave 
Of fallen greatness, ceased its pompous strains 
As Time came by." 

Flowers, that fill the ambient air with sweet odors 
and ambrosial incense, bloom, fade, die ! Our earth, 
at one season of the year, is clad in her beautiful dress 
of living green ; and the bright rays of a vernal sun 
enrich, expand, and beautify every scene in creation. 
The soft, warm air is filled with music, sunshine, and 
perfume, and all nature shines out in unrivalled splen- 
dor and loveliness. But how soon does the withering 
breath of a few revolving months rob the fields of their 
blooming verdure and beauty, the forests and trees of 
their foliage and drapery, and cause the green-robed 
earth " to lay her glory by" till- the time shall again 
come for the reproduction of flowers, plants, and herbs 
upon the face of nature ! Change and decay are im- 
pressed upon all things earthly. The eye lingers not 
upon an object, however beautiful and attractive now, 
which the corroding finger of time shall not one day 
mar or efface ! 



294 THE SWORD THAT CUTS : 

But Time does more. It invades a holier sanctuary, 
and introduces man to a brighter destiny and a happier 
climate beyond the grave. Piety and virtue may well 
consent to the blight and ruin of time, since it leads to 
their coronation amid the thrones and palaces of eter- 
nity ! The changeless and the eternal of heaven will 
amply compensate for the changeful and evanescent of 
earth. Time flies ; but with it the pure and holy are 
on the wing to brighter skies and nobler joys ! Beau- 
tiful, but to every earnest thoughtful heart true as 
beautiful, are the lines of the poet : 

" Roses bloom, and then they wither ; 
Cheeks are bright, then fade and die ; 
Shapes of light are wafted hither, 
Then, like visions, hurry by." 



STANDING FOR THE TRUTH? 

In silver slippers, can you ? — without being clothed 
with the panoply of heaven, armed with God's com- 
plete armor? — unless filled with the Holy Spirit? 
Who ever did ? 

" Come out," is the watchword. " Come out and be 
separate ; touch not the unclean thing, have no fellow- 
ship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather 
reprove them." Profess to stand for Jesus, and yet 
not rebuke sin in high places and in low — sins of omis- 
sion and commission ? 




SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES. 



What's going on here, think you, little readers ? Teach- 
ing the way to heaven ? It looks like it, don't it ? What 
more beautiful? Would that the world was full of it! 
Soon the earth would blossom as the rose. There is a 
right way and a wrong way. " There is a way which seem- 

295 



296 SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES. 

eth right unto a man ; but the end thereof are the ways of 
death." JProv. xiv. 12. In which way are you, young 
friends, the safe way, " straight and narrow, leading unto 
life eternal, the way the holy prophets went," spoken of 
by Isaiah xxxv. 8 ? " And a highway shall be there, and 
a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness ; the un- 
clean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those : the 
wayfaring men though fools, shall not err therein." 

Is this the way you are in, little folks and great folks ? 
If so, all is right, safe, joyous, glorious ! keep on in this 
way to the end, and you will land safely on Canaan's hap- 
py shore. There are often many ways to go to this place 
and that place, to this city and that city. One may take 
this road or that, this route or that. One may take a 
stage-coach, another the railway, a third the steamboat or 
sailing-vessel. But to heaven, the seat of glory, peace ever- 
lasting, joy inexpressible, there is only one way, the way 
of the cross; only one sailing-vessel, "the old ship Zion," 
that will take us to the happy land. Are you on this ves- 
sel, little readers ? Have you taken passage on the " old 
ship Zion ?" 

You hear it said frequently, that such and such children 
have been trained "in the way they should go," and after 
all, turn out badly, when, in fact, they have not taken one 
step " in the way they should go." They are in the broad 
road to ruin till they are led to Jesus for a new heart, a 
heart of love, till transformed into Christ's image. " Ex- 
cept a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of 
heaven." If no man or woman can enter the pearly gate 
of glory, till regenerated, " born of water and of the Spirit," 
no more can any little boy or girl. It is just as necessary 
for little folks to be born again, to enter heaven, as it is 
for the bisr folks. 




THE FOX m SEARCH OF HIS PREY. 

Are foxes cunning, crafty ? No animal more so. So are 
the wicked — little folks and great folks in the service of Sa- 
tan, that cunning, subtle old serpent that deceived our first 
parents in the garden of Eden. (See Genesis, xxx. 1-4.) 
The fox is not only cunning but voracious and mischievous. 
(Ezek. xiii. 4. Luke xiii. 32.) He is fond of grapes, and 
does much harm in vineyards. (Song, ii. 15.) The fable of 
the fox and the sour grapes is well known both to our lit- 
tle folks and big folks. Herod, that monster of wicked- 
ness and cunning craftiness for Satan, is termed a fox by 
our blessed Saviour. Turn to Luke xiii. 32, and see. Christ 
said to a certain scribe, " The foxes have holes, and the 
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not 
where to lay his head." 

" And didst thou, Saviour, have no home, 
Nor place to lay thine head ? 
Was all the universe too poor, 
To offer thee a bed ? 

297 



Educating Little Mary for the Heavenly Kingdom.— No. 32. 



" ' And what, O what is good ? 
'Tis first to seek the favor of thy God ; 
Let thy will blend with his, and honor him 
By walking in the way thy Saviour trod." 

Beloved brother and sister, allow us to say, that this 
dear child of yours, so beloved, thoroughly indoctri- 
nated gospelly, born of the Holy Spirit, regenerated, 
her taste formed on the side of virtuous purity — our 
fears of her falling into these traps of Satan, measura- 
bly subside. 

Love or relish puerility or hanker after it, things vain, 
trifling, sickly, sentimental, foolish, or nonsensical? 
Not a breath of it. If so be God is in her transform- 
ingly with hope buoyant, on solid rock firmly, and her 
soul on fire for good, justice, mercy and truth, " Get 
thee behind me, Satan" is evermore uppermost at her 
tongue's end, whenever and wherever she is tempted 
in the least to swerve from the paths of virtue. Her 
garments are " unspotted," undefiled — white and beau- 
tiful. 

" A bud of moral beauty. Let the dews 
Of knowledge and the light of virtue wake it 
In richest fragrance and in purest hues." 

When the Lord is in, Satan is out. And so long as 
the Lord, by his Holy Spirit and word, retains full 
possession of her heart, she is safe — u the wicked one 
toucheth her not." 

293 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 299 

Children born of the Holy Spirit, regenerated, 
washed in the blood of the Lamb — lust after evil 
things, delight in novels, conforming to the world in 
dress, folly, fashion, sinful amusements ? " If any 
man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things 
are passed away : behold all things are become new." 
2 Cor. v. 17. What avails a religion that does not 
cast out Satan and let in Christ ? To bring up chil- 
dren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is our 
blessed privilege. Besides, God commands it — -Eph. 
vi. 4. See also Dent. vi. 6-9., Pro v. xxii. 6. A child 
disciplined gospel ly from the first dawnings of infantile 
life, molded over and over in the gospel mold, "trained," 
as he should be, " in the way he should go," as God 
requires, is measurably proof against the wiles of 
Satan and every temptation. 

"What child was ever surrounded with evil influences 
more fearfully corrupting and contaminating, soul- 
destroying, than little Samuel? The sons of Eli were 
sons of Belial. The whole atmosphere around was 
morally contagious with spiritual malaria, and yet he 
let his light shine, walked in white, kept his garments 
unspotted, had no fellowship with the unfruitful works 
of darkness, but rather reproved them, " cried aloud, 
spared not," showed the people their transgressions, 
and the house of Jacob their sins. He was strong in 
the Lord, and in the power of his might. One thus 
trained will chase a thousand, and two put ten thou- 
sand to flight. 



300 EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 

*' Fill first the bushel with the wheat, 
With wisdom — food for souls to eat ; 
Then chaff, the fiction of the day, 
Will find no place and blow away." 

We speak thus from happy, joyful experience. The 
truth of God 

« Where'er it enters in, 

Is sharper than a two-edged sword, 
To slay the man of sin." 

" Thy word have I hid in my heart," says the Psalm- 
ist, " that I might not sin against thee."* This bring- 
ing home to our inmost soul the truths of the Bible, 



* To such a soul Christ is a satisfying portion. Having Christ, all 
its wants are supplied. The pleasures of sense no longer have a 
place in a soul thus filled with the love of Christ. " In his presence 
there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures for- 
evermore. "— Psal. xvi. 11. Having had a taste of better things, it 
no longer has a relish for the pleasures of sense. Abiding in the 
presence of Jesus, it is very careful not to do anything to grieve his 
loving Spirit. It loathes the pleasures after which the worldling 
seeks, and after which so many of the professed followers of Christ 
seem to hunger and thirst. 

Parents thus walking before God with perfect hearts, will, like 
Abraham, command their children after them. --Gen. xviii. 19. Not 
permitting them to spend their precious time in reading soul-destroy- 
ing literature, or to engage in amusements of a doubtful nature, but 
always pointing them to Jesus as the source of all joy. Many 
parents make a fearful mistake when they suppose that, to make 
home attractive, they must introduce all kinds of amusements. 
Games of chance are just as pernicious, when played in the parlor, 
as they are in the saloon, begetting in the young mind that love for 
excitement that grieves the loving, tender Spirit of Jesus away, and 
too often ending in the gambling saloon. 



EDUCATING LITTLE MARY. 301 

destroyed entirely and forever all relish for insipip, 
frothy, and ephemeral publications — the popular peri- 
odicals of the day, the fashion-plate magazines and 
comicals, the multitudinous mixed-up things of the 
bitter and the sweet, God and Mammon, Christ and 
Belial* When once the truths of the Bible have taken 
firm root in the heart, and become more precious than 
gold, sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb, 
these sugar coated poisons, snakes in the grass, satanic 
transformations, appear disgusting and heart- sickening, 
and are repudiated, as the froth and scum of the pit, 
fit neither for the land nor the dunghill. Whenever 
you see persons poring over these " literary serpents" 
with evident delight, you know certainly that they 
have not yet learned the first principles of true dis- 
cipleship. 

" Love not the world, neither the things that are in 
the w T orld, for if any man love the world, the love of 
the Father is not in him ; for all that is in the world — 
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and 
the pride of life — is not of the Father, but of the 
world. And the world passeth away, and the lusts 
thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth 
forever." 




OLD SIMEON HOLDING JESUS IN HIS ARMS. 

" And he came by the Spirit into the Temple : and 
when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for 
Him after the custom of the law, then took he Him up 
in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now 
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to 
Thy word ; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." 
Luke, ii. 27-30. 

Simeon was endowed with the spirit of prophecy, and 
by immediate inspiration he was assured that he should 
not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ. Thus, under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he came to the Temple 
at the very time when Joseph and Mary presented 
Jesus there, and so he witnessed the first accomplish- 
ment of a very remarkable prophecy concerning Him. 

Seeing, therefore, the infant Redeemer, and knowing 
who He was by the inspiration" of the Holy Spirit, he 
took him in his arms and " blessed God." 



302 



§^/< WMs%> 




THE OLD TESTAMENT IS GOLD, FINE 
GOLD. 

" 'Tis like the sun, a heavenly light, 
That guides us all the day ; 
And through the dangers of the night, 
A lamp to lead our way." 

THE USEFULNESS AND FULNESS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Christ and His redemption is the great subject 
of the whole Bible. Concerning the New Testa- 
ment, the matter is plain : it appears to be so with 
respect to the Old. Christ and His redemption is 
the great subject of the prophecies, as well as the 
songs of the Old Testament ; and the moral rules 
and precepts are all given in subordination to Him. 
Christ is also the great subject of the history of the 
Old Testament from the beginning all along ; and 
even the history of the creation is given as an intro- 
duction to the history of redemption that imme- 
diately follows it. The whole book, both Old 
Testament and New, is filled up with the Gospel ; 
only with- this difference, that the Old Testament 

303 



304 THE SniNING LIGHT. 

contains the Gospel under a veil, but the New con- 
tains it unveiled, so that we may. see the glory of 
the Lord with open face. 

Thus we may see the usefulness and excellency 
of the Old Testament. Some are ready to look on 
it as being out of date, and as if we, in these days 
of the Gospel, have but little to do with it. But 
this is a very great mistake, arising from a want of 
observing the nature and design of the Old Testa- 
ment, which, if it were observed, would appear full 
of the Gospel of Christ ; and would, in an excellent 
manner, illustrate and confirm the glorious doctrines 
and promises of the New Testament. Those parts 
of the Old Testament which are commonly looked 
upon as containing the least divine instruction, are 
mines and treasures of gospel knowledge ; and the 
reason why they are thought to contain so little is, 
that persons do but superficially read them. The 
treasures which are hid underneath are not ob- 
served. They only look on the top of the ground 
and suddenly pass a judgment that there is nothing 
there. But they never dig into the mine : if they 
did, they would find it richly stored with what is 
more valuable than silver and gold, and would be 
abundantly requited for their pains. 

" 'Tis a pearl of price exceeding 
All the gems in ocean found ; 
To its precepts ever listening, 
In its truths may I abound." 



4;J| j^jS 




RAM A, OR ARIMATHEA. 

Rama, or Arimathea, was the native place of Joseph, 
a rich man, who went to Pilate and begged the body 
of Jesus, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and 
laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in 
a rock. Matt, xxvii. 58. This was also the birthplace 
and residence of Samuel. 1 Sam. i. 19. " And Samuel 
judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went 
from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and 
Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. And 
his return was to Eama, for there was his house ; and 
there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto 
the Lord." 1 Sam. vii 15-17. 



" He that deviseth to do evil shall be 
chievous person." Prov. xxiv. 8. 

305 



called a mis- 



BEADING THE BIBLE SYSTEMATICALLY. 

" Read tlie Bible ; it will point you 
To bright scenes of bliss on high, 
Where there's rest for all the weary, 
And our loved ones never die." 

" The Bible holds the first place among tho 
means of implanting and promoting divine life in 
the soul ; and the Christian who fails to keep in 
some way the great truths of the Bible steadily 
before his mind, will find the vigor of his graces 
departing. No other reading will serve as a sub- 
stitute for reading the Bible. No other study or 
meditation will answer the purpose of the word of 
Christ, dwelling in us richly in all wisdom. If we 
look for religion to be revived, our expectation will 
be realized, only by the mind of the Church being 
brought in steadier contact with the lively oracles. 
When the Christian mind aw T akes from its com- 
parative coldness to a higher state of vitality and 
devotedness, the word of God invariably does the 
work of an instrument of the quickening. And 
when conviction of sin, and those struggles of mind 
which are wont to precede conversion, are experi- 
enced by the impenitent, it is the contents of the 
Bible which have introduced them ; and that 
religious experience which holds the Bible at a dis- 
tance, or that does not stand immediately connected 
with some fact or principle of the divine word, is 
spurious. 

" The habitual reading of the Bible, joined with 
prayerful meditations, becomes then a duty of the 

306 



TIIE SHINING LIGHT. 307 

first importance. Other ways of bringing the eon- 
tents of the Bible to hear upon the mind have each 
their suitableness and proportionate value ; but 
none of them can supersede the habitual reading 
of the word of God. And hence it becomes an im- 
portant question how w r e shall engage our minds, 
so as to secure the advantages of this steady draught 
from the fountains of divine truth ; and not be 
robbed of it by the rush of worldly cares, and the 
multiplied calls upon us for secular employment. 

" To this end, we need to seize the advantage of 
system and habit ; and for the sake of a system 
which shall hold the mind to the engagement, it is 
well to take up the purpose of reading the Bible 
through, once a year. If this purpose be adopted 
and pursued, it will insure to us an amount of 
Bible-reading which we should not probably attain 
without it ; and this circumstance alone might be 
the means of giving a new impulse to our growth in 
grace. By holding the mind upon the word of God, 
as we should by that means, we soon create another 
power to help us on in our course ; w r e mean the 
power of habit. After we become for a course of 
years accustomed to such an amount of application 
of the mind to the Bible, it will not only become 
easy and pleasant to find the time to devote to it, 
but it will have become in a measure necessary. 
"We shall be uneasy and dissatisfied without it.* 

* Kead three chapters every week-day, and five every Sabbath, 
and you will go through the Bible in a year. A better plan stilL 
is, to divide the Bible ; to begin with Genesis, Job, and Matthew, 

2* 




sidon. 

Sidon is one of the most ancient cities in the world. 
Gen. xlix. 13. Many of the Sidonians became follow- 
ers of Jesus. Mark, iii. 8. Many of them resorted to 
him in Galilee. LuJce, vi. 17. Paul visited Sidon on 
his voyage to Eome. Acts, xxvii. 3. Our Saviour re- 
fers to both Tyre and Sidon in reproaching the Jews, 
who were more highly favored. Matt. xi. 21, 22. " Woe 
unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for 
if the mighty works which were done in you had been 
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented 
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, 
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the 
day of judgment, than for you." 

How fearfully applicable to our city, State, and na- 
tion ! " Where much is given, much is required." 

308 



THE BEAUTY AND GRANDE UU OF THE 
BIBLE. 

THE TESTIMONY OF A BLIND GIRL. 

The Bible is the Book of books. In comparison, 
Byron loses his fire, Milton his soarings, Gray his 
beauties, and Homer his grandeur and figures. No 
eye like rapt Isaiah's ever pierced the veil of the 
future ; no tongue ever reasoned like sainted Job's ; 
no poet ever sang like Israel's Shepherd King, and 
God never made a wiser man than Solomon. The 
words of the Bible are pictures of Immortality, 
dews from the tree of Knowledge, pearls from the 
river of Life, and gems of celestial thought. As the 
moaning shell whispers of the sea, so the Bible 
breathes of love in heaven, the home of angels, and 
joys too pure to die. Would I had read it more 
when my poor eyes could see ! Would more of its- 
pure precepts were bound about my heart, and I 
had wisdom to make them the mottoes of my life ! 
The world may entertain its idea of a magnificent 
Deity, whose government is general ; but let me 
believe in the Lord God of Elijah, whose Provi- 
dence is entire, ordering the minutest event in human 
life, and with a father's care arranging it for the 
greatest possible good. Yes, Lizzy, when storms 
gather, and my sepulchred way is dark and drear; 
with no star to guide, nor voice to cheer, my sink- 
ing spirit finds refuge in the world-wide sympathies 
of a Saviour, who did not chide Mary for her tears, 

309 



310 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

and came Himself to weep at the grave of His 
friend. 

" Here a blessed balm appears 
To heal the deepest woe, 
And he that seeks this book in tears, 
His tears shall cease to flow. 

" Here he who died on Calvary's tree 
Has made that promise blessed — 
Ye heavy laden, come to me, 
And I will give you rest. 

*' A bruised reed I will not break — 
A contrite heart despise : 
My burden's light, and all who take 
My yoke shall win the skies. 

" Yes, yes, this blessed book is worth 
All else to mortals given ; 
For what are all the joys of earth 
^ Compared to joys of heaven ? 

" This is the guide our Father gave 
To lead to realms of day — 
A star whose lustre gilds the grave — 
' The light, the life, the way.' " 



OUK CONVERSATION SHOULD BE TRUTHFUL. — It 

should be truthful. " Let your words be Yea, yea, 
and nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than this 
cometh of evil." The way to prevent idle words is 
to study the Scriptures and cultivate benevolence 
of heart, and a sense of responsibility to God for 
every thing we say. When David said, " I will 
take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my 
tongue," he made a resolution against " idle words." 




.aJS 




GIBEOK 



Gibeon, formerly a city of the Hivites ; afterward a 
Levitical city, in the tribe of Benjamin. Josh, xviii. 25. 
The Canaanites secured a treaty with Joshua by strat- 
agem. Josh. ix. 8-14. The fault of Joshua was, he did 
not seek direction from above in a matter of so great 
importance. " And the men took of their victuals, and 
asked not counsel of the Lord." A sad mistake, and 
yet how frequent ! "In all thy ways acknowledge him, 
and he shall direct thy paths." 

" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that 
giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not ; and it 
shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing 
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the 
sea, driven with the wind and tossed." James, i. 5, 6. 

311 



THE BIBLE COMMON TO ALL. 

A WORD TO INQUIRERS AFTER TRUTH. 

" This is the guide our Father gave 
To lead to realms of day ; 
A star, whose lustre gilds the grave ; 
The Truth, the Life, the Way." 

The Bible is the commonest of books, but we 
must not permit its commonness to blind us to the 
fact that it contains the mind of God made visible. 
It is an oracle as real as that " within the vail," 
where the splendor of the Shekinah flashed on the 
jewelled breastplate of Aaron. It contains the his- 
tory of the "mighty acts" of the Bedeemer of Israel ; 
the inspired choruses of prophetic inspiration ; the 
fourfold biography of the Word made flesh — of 
Humanity transfigured by the indwelling Divinity ; 
the most secret revelations of the apostles on the 
mysteries of heaven. The mind that draws nigh to 
God in the patient and reverent study of these 
books, as Mary drew near to Jesus with tears of 
penitence, shall find the fulfilment of the promise, 
" God shall draw nigh to you." The understanding 
shall see, and the heart shall feel, that " the Word" 
which is "nigh" is the voice of God; that the Bible 
is, " in very deed," the voice of Omnipotence ; not 
speaking to the angels in distant thunders, or rolling 
among the far-off spheres, as when by his word the 
heavens were made ; but talking with us close at 
hand, " as when a man talketh with his friend." All 
the servants of Christ shall exclaim at last, when 
retracing their early journeys and their Bible 

312 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 313 

studies, " Did not our hearts burn within us, as he 
talked with us by the way, and opened to us the 
Scriptures?" The Bible, which is like the sleeping 
face of Jesus to a sinner, opens its eyes and smiles 
ineffable love upon the saint, as w r hen Jesus awoke 
radiant in the storm at the disciples' cry. 

Eeader, clasp it to your bosom, give yourself up 
to be influenced, unreservedly, by its precious pre- 
cepts every step ; and as certain as you live you 
w T ill not be disappointed. "In all thy ways ac- 
knowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." 

" O ye simple ! understand wisdom, keep my 
commandments and live," saith the Lord. 

"Bind them continually upon thine heart, and 
tie them about thy neck ; for the commandment is 
a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of in- 
struction are the way of life." 

" To the lav/ and the testimony." 

" Upon this life's uneven way, 

As we are swiftly driven, 
It sheds a bright, celestial ray, 
It points to an eternal day, 

And bids us strive for heaven." 



" These all died in faith, not having received the 
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were 
persuaded of them, and embraced them, and con- 
fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth." Heb. xi. 13. " Jesus answered, Abraham 
rejoiced to see my day : and he saw it, and was 
glad." John viii. 56. 





THE VALLEY OP JORDAN. 



Through this valley flows the river Jordan, which 
overflows its banks in the spring. It was during the 
annual swelling of Jordan that Joshua and the Israel- 
ites crossed it. Josh, iii* 15. Yet the swift and swol- 
len current was arrested in its course opposite to 
Jericho ; and while the waters belo^vy the city rolled on 
to the sea, those above it were miraculously stayed, 
and left in the river-bed a wide passage for the host 
of Israel. Twice afterward the Jordan was miracu- 
lously crossed by Elijah and Elisha. 2 Kings, ii. 8-14. 
In its waters the leprosy of Naaman was healed, and 
the lost axe-head floated at the word of Elisha. 2 
Kings, v. 15-66. Here, too, our Saviour was baptized. 
Matt iii. 18. 

314 



THE WONDERS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Most wondrous book ! bright candle of the Lord." 

The more we read it, the more we love it — ad- 
mire it. 

Search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revela- 
tion with prayer a thousand times, and new beauties 
will appear — bright, shining, glorious ! like " apples 
of gold in pictures of silver." Is it so with human 
compositions ? 

Says Rev. James Hamilton : " If we have ever 
tried it, we must have been struck with the few solid 
thoughts, the few suggestive ideas which survive 
the perusal of the most brilliant of human books. 
Few of them can stand three readings ; and of the 
memorabilia which you had marked in your first 
reading, on reverting to them you find that many 
of these were not so striking, or weighty, or original 
as you thought. But the word of God is solid, it 
will stand a thousand readings, and the man who 
has gone over it the most frequently and carefully 
is the surest of finding new wonders there." 

Professor Woods says: "When I commenced my 
duties as professor of theology, I feared that the 
frequency with which I should have to pass over 
the same portions of the Scripture would abate the 
interest in my own mind in reading them. But 
after more than fifty years of study, it is my experi- 
ence that with every class my interest increases." 

" No writers, from the invention of letters to the 
present time, are equal to the penmen of the books 

315 



31G 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



of the Old and New Testaments in true excellency, 
utility, and dignity." 

"Every word, every syllable ouglit to be admired, 
with glotving admiration." 

John Quincy Adams remarks thus : " I have for 
many years made it a practice to read through the 
Bible once a year. My custom is to read four or 
five chapters every morning after rising from my 
bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and 
seems to be the most suitable manner of beginning 
the day. In what light soever we regard the Bible, 
whether with reference to revelation, to history, or 
morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine 
of knowledge and virtue." 

u No treasures so enrich the mind ; 

Nor shall thy word be sold 

For loads of silver well refined, 

Nor heaps of choicest gold." 

" Christ suffered, the just for the unjust." 1 Pet. 
iii. 18. " He made himself of no reputation, and 
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion 
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii. 
7, 8. " Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried 
our sorrows ; yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he w T as wounded 
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our in- 
iquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him, and by his stripes we are healed." Isa. liii. 4, 5. 




THE SPAKBOW ON THE HOUSE-TOP. 

Spareows abound in all Palestine, and are beauti- 
fully referred to in the Scriptures. They are still 
sold at a price not greater than that mentioned by 
our Saviour in Matt. x. 29 : " Are not two spar- 
rows sold for a farthing ?" 

"When a sparrow loses its mate, he will sit on the 
house-top through the .whole day mourning. David, 
in allusion to this characteristic, speaking of him- 
self, says, " I watch, and am like a sparrow alone on 
the house-top." Ps. cii. 7. See also Ps. Ixxxiv. 3. 



" As on some lonely building top, 
The sparrow tells her moan, 
Far from the tents of joy and hope, 
I sit and grieve alone." 
317 



TASTES DIFFER— BIBLE TRUTH, NEVER. 

<c, Tis a lamp forever burning, 
By whose never-dying light, 
Sinners, from their errors turning, 
Are directed through the night." 

" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 
and the several parts of it are of equal authority ; 
but this does not forbid that some one portion 
should be, without disparagement to the rest, re- 
garded by any reverential reader with a peculiar 
relish, as best suited to his wants and tastes. 

Perhaps it is the experience of most Christians 
that certain portions of God's Word come home to 
their hearts with greater force than others, and 
hence are more habitually referred to, or perused 
with greater interest. One dwells more constantly 
on the gospels than the epistles, and in either case 
one gospel is a favorite above others, or one epistle 
is dwelt on in preference to another. In regard 
to the Old Testament, one never tires of the his- 
torical books, and another loves to pore on the 
prophetical, while many find a never-failing feast 
in the Psalms. 

Thus all who love the Scriptures find "green 
pastures and still waters" everywhere, while each 
may have his favorite walks in the richly adorned 
garden. Each book of the Scriptures teaches the 
same doctrine, and directs to the same end, and 
yet they are so diversified that all tastes may be 
satisfied, and all states of mind suited; " milk for 

318 



TIIE SniNING LIGHT. 



319 



babes and strong meat for men" are provided in 
rich abundance, and parcelled out to each as he 
feels the pressure of his spiritual wants. 

" 'Tis a mine of richest treasure, 
Laden with the purest ore ; 
And its contents, without measure, 
You can never well explore." 



The Bible a perfect Eule. — In human affairs 
the Bible should be the supreme arbiter ; the 
inquiry always — "what saith the Lord?" and the 
answer obtained binding in obligation and decisive. 
Our faith should be that which was "once delivered 
unto the saints." We should make it our own, 
" contend earnestly for it." As over the gateway 
of a market in the city of Perth, is engraven in 
antique character on a mouldering stone, " A false 
balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just 
weight is His delight;" so not only over our markets 
but over the proceedings in our stores, offices, 
manufactories, and dwellings should the word of 
God have controlling power, be appealed to as 
the divine standard, and continually govern. The 
principles and directions of holy writ should bo 
laid as a golden rule along every human tenet and 
transaction, and between these and the rule there 
should be complete correspondence. " To the law 
and to the testimony," agreement with these is 
right, and disagreement is wrong. 




ANATHOTH. 



Anathoth, some four miles north by east of Jerusa- 
lem. Joshua, xxi. 18. The birthplace of Jeremiah, the 
prophet. Jer. i. 1. The people rejected his words and 
sought his life ; but the Lord delivered him and de- 
stroyed his enemies. " Therefore, thus saith the Lord 
of hosts, behold I will punish them ; the young men 
shall die by the sword ; their sons and their daugh- 
ters shall die by famine." Jer. xi. 22. They could not 
endure the faithful, pungent appeals of this outspoken 
servant of God. "Whoever ventures to use the sword 
of God's truth against the sins of carnal and presump- 
tuous professors of religion, may expect to be hated for 
their faithfulness, how much soever they weep over 
them, pray for them, and labor for their good. 

320 



"I THOUGHT EVERYBODY LOVED THE 
BIBLE ;" OR, A LEARNED INEIDEL CON- 
VINCED OF THE EXCELLENCY OF THE 
BIBLE BY A LITTLE GIRL. 

" Happy the soul that reads the page 
That guides our youth and cheers our age ; 
Yea, blessed evermore is he, 
O Lord, who learns to come to thee." 

There was once a very clever and learned gentle- 
man, but an infidel — that is, one who did not believe 
the Scriptures — and he was travelling among the 
mountains and valleys of "Wales. He came to a 
roadside cottage in a lonely, lovely spot ; and, as 
he was very tired and thirsty, stopped to ask for a 
cup of water. It was a little girl he spoke to, sit- 
ting at the cottage door with a book on her knee. 
She instantly rose, and said, " Will you not have a 
cup of milk, sir ? for you are hot, and the cold water 
would hurt you." He was very pleased with her 
kindness, and thought he would like a little chat 
with her. So when she came out w T ith the milk, he 
said, " I see you are getting your lesson there, my 
dear." " No, sir," she answered ; " I am only read- 
ing." "Why, what book?" "The Bible, sir." 
" What," said he, half smiling to himself, as he gave 
her back the cup, " do you like that book, then ?" 
For a moment the little maiden did not answer for 
surprise ; then, lifting her bright eyes to his face, 
she said, " Why, sir, I thought that everybody loved 
the Bible." And the gentleman bid the child good- 

321 



322 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

by, and slowly rode along. I did not know what 
lie was thinking of then ; but years after, when ho 
had become a true and humble Christian, he used 
to tell of that little "Welsh girl, and to say, " And I, 
too, now that I understand what the Bible is, am 
almost as ready to wonder at my question as she 
was ; for every one who really knows it must surely 
love it too." 

" Here brightest glories meet and sliine ; 
Here mercy smiles in every line ; 
Here justice, with a frowning face, 
Is answered by our Saviour's grace." 



The Prayer of Kempis. — Eeader, can you adopt 
it? Is it not the only one for Christian lips to 
utter ? — " Lord, thou knowest what is best : let this 
or that be done, according to thy will. Give me 
what thou wilt, and in w T hat measure, and at what 
time thou wilt. Do with me as thou knowest to be 
best, as most pleaseth thee, and will tend most to 
thy honor. Place me where thou wilt, and freely 
dispose of me in all things. Lo, I am in thy hands ; 
lead and turn me whithersoever thou pleasest : I 
am thy servant, prepared for all submission and 
obedience. I desire not to live to myself, but to 
thee : oh, grant it may be truly and worthily !" 

All that has been written on repose and resigna- 
tion seems comprehended in that single petition of 
the Saviour's, " Thy will be done." 




Michmas, a town of Benjamin, was nine miles north 
by east of Jerusalem. Neh. vii. 31. 

Here Jonathan and his armor-bearer performed won- 
ders. They climbed up between two steep hills or 
rocks, and boldly attacked and routed the whole army 
of the Philistines ! Reader, seest thou w T hat faith can 
do? Jonathan had faith in God. He honored God, 
and God honored him. Hypocrites, time-servers, and 
men-pleasers often detect their indifference, even about 
the religion they professedly choose ; for as it has no 
practical energy upon them, a small matter induces 
them to dispense with the useless form. No warning 
or examples are sufficient to convince men of the folly 
and danger of trusting in the forms of worship, while 
they neglect the power of it. 

323 



THE LITTLE BLIND GIRL AND HER 
BIBLE. 

" Holy Bible— Book of Truth, 
I loved thee from my early youth ; 
And thou slialt ever be my guide, 
More precious than all else beside." 

A little girl who loved the Bible dearly became 
blind, and when she could no longer see to read it 
she only loved it more. A kind friend gave her a 
New Testament, printed for the use of the blind, in 
raised letters, which she could feel with her fingers, 
and so make out. Never was a child more delighted 
than she. It was a touching thing to see her, every 
moment she could spare, passing her fingers slowly 
over the page, as her lips silently uttered the 
precious words. But her touch was not quick 
enough for her ; her finger-ends, poor child ! were 
rough, and sometimes she had to stop a long time 
over a word. So one day she took a penknife and 
lightly pared away the skin from just the tips of 
her fingers, hoping that so her feeling would be 
more tender, and she could get on faster. What 
was her distress in finding, after a few days, that 
her skin had grown again, but so hard that she 
could not feel the shape of a single letter! She 
tried and tried, but all in vain ; then, bursting into 
an agony of tears, she pressed the much-loved 
pages to her lips, to bid them, as she thought, a 
last farewell. But, as she did so, she suddenly 
found out that her lips had the feeling which her 

324 



THE SHINING LIGHT. o£0 

fingers had lost. The letters, the words, were quite 
plain ! I cannot tell you her joy that she' still could 
read. And hundreds of times since the blessed 
book has been held to her lips, not in sorrow for a 
farewell kiss, but in thankfulness and joy, that even 
she can read the words of everlasting life. 

" Let this blest volume ever lie 
Close to my heart and near my eye ; 
To life's last hours my thoughts engage, 
And he my chosen heritage." 



The Bible is the only true and infinite source of 
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ 
Jesus, designed to strengthen, elevate, and en- 
courage the faith of God's elect, in the midst of the 
moral darkness, apostasy, and perils of this last 
degenerate age. It is the sure word of prophecy, 
or history of the world given in advance, by which 
the Christian mariner discovers his latitude and 
longitude, or near proximity to the haven of eternal 
rest and glory, where he is safely anchored from 
all the dangers and disasters of a perilous voyage. 
It is the Book of books, from which we derive all 
the faithful promises of God to the children of men, 
relative to the advent of the Messiah, the resurrec- 
tion of the saints, the kingdom of God, the crown 
of life, the mansions of bliss, the far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory, etc., etc., which con- 
stitute the true hope of every devoted believer in 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 




TIBERIAS. 

Tibekias, a city of Galilee, situated on the western 
sliore of Lake Genesareth. The lake also is called the 
Sea of Tiberias. John, vi. 1, 2. 

" After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Gal- 
ilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multi- 
tude followed him, because they saw his miracles which 
he did on them that were diseased." 

Here, at this time, Jesus fed about five thousand with 
five barley-loaves and two small fishes. " When they 
were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the 
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." 

What a lesson here ! Save ? Yes ; time, talents, 
property, everything valuable for your own and others' 
use ; little things and great things. 

326 



THE FEIENDS OF THE BIBLE ; THE ENE. 
MIES OF THE BIBLE. AS THEY LIVE, 
SO THEY DIE. 

" The hour of death tries man, tries his works and teachings." 

In the controversy between the friends and the 
enemies of the Gospel, the former can point to 
many expiring mortals, and with unanswerable 
argument can say, " See how a Christian can die !" 
But where are the models of composure and triumph 
among those who are not Christians? What are 
the names of the unbelievers, who at the hour of 
death have exhibited any enviable elevation of 
soul? In the faded eye of what dying infidel has 
the light of eternity kindled a splendor, which has 
brightened and brightened till the curtain of death 
has spread over it ? 

It appears that Paine, like Gibbon, was unwdlling 
to be left alone as he drew near to the confines of 
another world. Although in conversation he pro- 
fessed to be perfectly willing to die, yet if his cur- 
tains were at any time closed, he would literally 
scream till they were opened, and till he could per- 
ceive that some fellow-man was nigh him. 

"Was this courageous in a dying man? Did it 
appal a bold infidel to have living beings withdraw 
for a moment from his eye, and to be as it were in 
the sole presence of his God? Did a sense of 
desertion come over him when his earthly friends 
were not by his side ? 

But we will leave it to you, now, to compare with 

327 



328 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



the death of these just-mentioned characters, as 
well as with that of many others whom we might 
select from the front rank of Bible-rejecters ; with 
the host of Christians who have died victorious even 
in death, triumphing through a living faith in Christ. 
And in this comparison we are particularly struck 
with this great and important fact, that never, as 
yet, has a belieVer in the doctrines of the Bible re- 
gretted or renounced such a faith on the couch of 
death. He who believes until then is glad for his 
faith, grasps it with a firmer hold, and thanks God 
for it ! 

In the Bible we have the most perfect revelation 
concerning the future. That which the acute eye 
of philosophy could not espy is here brought to 
light. While Socrates, who was one of the noblest 
sons of philosophy, was in the end obliged to con- 
fess, that, " unless the gods interfered he must be 
annihilated," and while others of modern times — 
who claim to have made great progress since his 
time — have died in despair, there are numbers of 
believers in the Bible dying daily, with a full assur- 
ance of an immortality. 

How did the patriarchs die, the holy prophets 
and apostles? Die? They did not. They fell 
asleep calmly, sweetly, heavenly ! " Our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth," said the blessed Saviour. John 
ii. 11. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
shall never die." John ii. 26. How did the martyrs 
die, who resisted unto blood, striving against sin ? 
To them, death had no terrors ; they praised God 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



32S 



in tlie flames. Witness the last moments of Luther 
Wesley, Fletcher, Bunyan, Baxter, Doddridge, Pay- 
son, Edwards. The kingdom of God was in them, 
heaven began below. 

The last words of Wesley were : " The best of all 
is, God is with us." 

Rev, Edward Bickersteth said : " What a comfort 
it is not to have to seek salvation now ! I enjoy a 
salvation found." 

Richard Watson, an eminent Wesleyan minister 
exclaimed joyfully in his last moments : " The 
atonement," he repeatedly remarked, "is the sin- 
ner's short way to God. On this Rock I rest, and 
feel it firm beneath me. 

' How firm lie proves ! 
The Rock of Ages never moves : 
Yet the sweet streams that from him flow 
Attend ns all the desert through.' 

Yes, I feel that I am on this Rock ; in the Lord I 
have righteousness and strength." 

Rev. George Burder was continually " looking for 
the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal 
life." 

Said Payson on his dying bed: "The Sun of 
Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer 
and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he 
approached ; and now he fills the whole hemisphere, 
pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to 
float, like an insect in the beams of the sun, exult- 
ing, yet almost trembling while I gaze on this ex- 
cessive brightness, and wondering with unutterable 



330 TIIE SHINING LIGHT. 

wonder why God should deign thus to shine upon 
a sinful worm. A single heart and a single tongue 
seem altogether inadequate to my wants. I want a 
whole heart for every separate emotion, and a whole 
tongue to express that emotion." 

Senator Foot, who fell asleep in Jesus recently at 
Washington, said in his expiring moments, " What ! 
can this be death ?" And then lying a few moments 
longer with eyes all full of a celestial radiance, he 
lifted his hands and looked up, exclaiming, " I see 
it! I see it ! The gates are wide open. Beautiful! 
beautiful!" and without a movement or a pang, 
immediately expired. 

We could fill volumes of similar testimonies of 
the truth that 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are." 

In conclusion, hear the testimony of the inspired 
Apostle Paul : " I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished mj course, I have kept the faith : hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
give me at that day." 

" 'Tis religion that can give 
Sweetest pleasures while we live ; 
'Tis religion will supply 
Solid comfort when we die : 
After death its joys shall be 
Lasting as eternity." 



w 



mMi ~ ' 




Nain was a city of Palestine, where Jesus restored a 
widow's son to life, as they were carrying him out to 
be buried. 

"And it came to pass the day after, that he went 
into a city called Nain ; and many of his disciples went 
with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh 
to the gate of the city, behold there was a dead man 
carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a 
widow ; and much people of the city was with her. 
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on 
her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and 
touched the bier ; and they that bare him stood still. 
And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And 
he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he 
delivered him to his mother." Luke, vii. 11-15. 

331 



A BELIEVEE'S ESTIMATE OF THE BIBLE 

" Thy word is power — thy word is life." 

I loye the Bible. As the storehouse of religious 
knowledge ; as the instrument of ministerial useful- 
ness ; as the test of Christian experience ; as the 
guide of social order, and guardian of civil free- 
dom ; as the only sure barrier against the desolat- 
ing inroads of fanaticism, Socinianism, and Athe- 
ism ; as the friend of the people, irrespective of con- 
dition or class ; and as the " world's best hope," I love 
the Bible. I love its testimonies, for their truthful- 
ness and moral grandeur. I love its arguments, for 
their fairness and cogency. I love its invitations, for 
their condescension and freeness ; Hove its promises, 
for their appropriateness, vastness, and certainty. I 
love its prayers, as models of filial freedom and be- 
lieving reverence. I love its songs, for their solemn 
gladness and their godly bearing. I love its precepts, 
for their equity and chasteness, their accordance 
with the principles of grace, their affinity with the 
promises, and their applicability to the vicissitudes 
of my heavenward pilgrimage. I love it for its 
Author and authority ; for the evils it rebukes and 
removes ; for the good it does and designs ; for the 
goodness it reveals and requires ; for the fellowship 
it creates, and the friendship it sanctifies and 
cements ; for the happiness it diffuses, and the 
prospects it unfolds. I love it as a record, a me- 
morial, a standard, a treasure, a companion, and a 
guide. As a law-book, it is the cheapest and safest ; 

" 332 



TIT7C SHINING LIGHT. 333 

as a prayer-book it is full and infallible ; as a liymn- 
book, alike faultless are its theology, poetry, spirit, 
and style ; and as a school-book, it surpasses every 
other for fixing the attention, feeding thought, con- 
trolling the imagination, informing the judgment, 
training the conscience, educing the superior af- 
fections of the heart, and in every respect fitting 
for society. Therefore I love it in the study, the 
pulpit, and the pew ; in the counting-house and the 
workshop ; in the garden and the field ; in the 
sitting-room and the bedchamber ; in the railway- 
carriflge and the steamboat ; in the morning and the 
evening ; in sickness and in health. In every case 
and place, be it near me for reading or hearing, for 
counsel or comfort. 

Because of its dwine origin and originality, it is 
the best of books ; and in religion is the sole au- 
thority, infallible and absolute. It needs not, and 
will not sanction a companion volume, as being 
equally with itself a test of truth or rule of practice. 
To " the Bible, the Bible only," every one who would 
learn " the good and the right way," must apply his 
mind and yield his conscience. He must resort to 
it, not to obtain support to opinions previously 
adopted, but to receive meekly, unreservedly, and 
unhesitatingly whatever is really taught therein. 
"For instruction, for conviction, for reformation 
(or restoration), and 'for education in righteous- 
ness," the Scriptures "given by the inspiration of 
God" are " profitable" and sufficient. No tenet is 
true, no principles are sound, no motives are pure, 



334 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

no conduct is correct, no hope is well founded, no 
precepts are binding, no ordinances, rites, or cere- 
monies are becoming, and no worship is accepta- 
ble, except in harmony with this sacred volume. It 
alone is the standard of morals and prescriber of 
piety. It is not a book of science ; yet every sci- 
ence is false that is contradictory to it. It is not a 
book of politics ; yet all politics which are adverse 
to its principles are unjust and mischievous. It is 
a book for time, to guide through it; a book for 
earth, to lift above it ; a book for society, to re- 
generate and elevate it. It is a book for man, in 
relation to man his brother — and for man the sin- 
ner, in relation to " God the Saviour." It is " the 
book of Jehovah," because it, and it only, teaches 
us of the One eternal Being, who of himself alone 
is immutably existent ; who in himself alone is ab- 
solute perfection ; who is the first cause of all 
things good, and the end oi* all things, both in the 
way of terminating what is to be concluded, and of 
consummating what is to be completed. It is "the 
word of Christ," because "the testimony of Jesus;" 
the God-man Mediator, the appointed Redeemer of 
sinners and Lord of saints, is its alpha and omega 
— beginning and end. It is " the word of truth," 
because its records are facts, its gifts are substan- 
tialities, its requirements are righteousness, and its 
predictions and promises are but anticipations of 
Providence, which, without exception, in due time 
and order, become verities. It is a book of purposes, 
not experiments ; of realities, not fancies ; and of pos - 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 335 

itivities, not possibilities. It is " tlie book of the law," 
because it admits of no appeal from its decision. 

No other book is so wide in its range, so lofty in 
its aim, so benevolent in its spirit, so dignified in 
its character, and so happy in its influence. Its 
depth is the mystery of truth ; its height is the 
splendor of purity; its mission is the mercy of 
love ; its course is the path of wisdom ; its sphere 
is the world of fallen mankind, and its end is the 
glory of God. It is, therefore, and it only is, 
of universal utility. The philosopher, by the study 
of »it, may extend his knowledge of the laws of 
matter and the properties of mind ; the statesman 
may learn from it precedents and principles ap- 
plicable to national government ; the poet may find 
in it inspiring aids to his noblest conceptions ; the 
painter may depict from it scenes of loftiest 
grandeur and holiest awe, and portraits of goodness 
and beauty affording the fullest scope to his artistic 
genius ; while the ploughboy and " the maid behind 
the mill" may, by means of it, learn the most exalted 
lessons, and attain unto the divinest skill. 

"Whoever is humbly led by it, is safely led to 
heaven. It confounds the conceited, baffles the 
speculative, rebukes the proud, frowns upon the 
formal, denounces the ungenerous, dooms the 
profligate and the impenitent, smiles upon the 
meek and self-denying, assures the fearingly con- 
trite, and refreshes the way-worn follower of Christ 
with living water from the crystal fountain of 
eternal love. Like all the works of God, his word 



336 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

is diversified and harmonious, plain and profound, 
simple and sublime, suitable and serviceable. It 
contains the developments of the eternal will, the 
thunderings of righteous and reasonable wrath, the 
benefactions of unmerited favor, the rebukes of 
fatherly fidelity, the beauties of holiness, the grow- 
ings of. love, the counsels of wisdom, and the index 
of futurity. By it, faith unto gratuitous salvation 
is authorized, penitence is evoked, prayer is in- 
structed, hope is uplifted, love is attracted, obedi- 
ence is guided, affliction is irradiated, zeal is 
animated, praise is inspired, and death is conquered. 
It is the dissecter of the human heart, the charter 
of the Christian Church, the specular of the Deity, 
and the telescope of eternity. This is the book — 
the one book of my heart. " Oh, how I love thy 
law," Father of lights and God of truth ! " The 
law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands 
of gold and silver." 

" Dear to my soul the ' truth and grace* 
Unfolded in this book ; 
Grant, Lord, the beamings of thy face, 
When through its leaves I look. 

" From Christ that I may not depart, 
Nor yield to sin or sense, 
Engrave thy word upon my heart, 
By gracious influence. 

" In every trouble let me find 
Thy wise directions bless ; 
Let truth support and cheer my mind, 
When sore afflictions press." 




NAZARETH, THE PLACE OF JESUS. 

" Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth — John, i. 46. 

Yes, salvation on salvation, glory on glory ! " Tliou 
shalt call His name Jesus ; for He sliall save His peo- 
ple from their sins." Not in their sins. 

Nazareth is said to be " The city of Jesus," because 
it was the place of his usual residence during the first 
thirty years of his life. Matt. ii. 23 ; Lake, i. 26 ; Matt. 
xiii. 54-58. 

From this place a light went forth, enlightening the 
whole world. " Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
earth and good-will to man." 

337 



THE BIBLE SUITED TO EVEBY CASE. 

" 'Tis a broad land of wealth unknown, 
Where springs of life arise ; 
Seeds of immortal bliss are sown, 
And hidden glory lies." 

There is evidently something in the oracles of 
God suited to every character and situation in life. 
Let the wordly-minded " seek out the book of the 
Lord, and read" Ecclesiastes, to learn the vanity of 
the world ; the moralist, the book of Proverbs, and 
the Sermon on the Mount, to learn true morality ; 
the man who depends on his own merits, the Epistles 
to the Romans and Galatians, to know the true way 
of acceptance with God; the unfruitful professor, 
the Epistles of St. James, St. John, and St. Peter, 
to discover the genuine fruits of a living faith ; the 
profane and unbeliever, the Second Epistle of St. 
Peter, and the Epistle of St. Jude, to know the 
fearful consequences of sin and unbelief ; the heart 
in danger of apostasy, Hosea and Hebrews, to pre- 
serve it, or to recover it from its wanderings ; the 
man observant of Providence, the book of Esther, 
in which, though the name of God is not found, the 
hand of God is so clearly seen ; those who are en- 
gaged in great undertakings for church or state, 
the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, that they may 
proceed in the fear of God, and in dependence on 
him ; the devotional, the Psalms of David, to purify 
and heighten their devotions ; the afflicted, the 
books of Job and Jeremiah, that they may know 
how to endure trials ; the true believer, the Epistles 

333 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 339 

to the Epliesians, Colossians, and Philippians, that 
he may perceive what it is to grow in grace, and in 
the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour ; and the 
prophecies of Isaiah and Zachariah, that he may 
rejoice in the prospect of the future glory of the 
Church, and in the final triumph of the Christian 
cause ; and the preacher, the Epistles to Timothy 
and Titus, that he may " take heed to himself and 
to his doctrine, and continue in them, and save 
himself and them that hear him." Not that any 
should confine himself to one part of Scripture, 
however appropriate to him ; but let all search 
every part, and read doctrines for their edification, 
promises for their comfort, precepts for their 
guidance, invitations for their encouragement, 
examples for their imitation, interrogations to 
awaken their minds, and threatenings to deter 
them from sin and unbelief. 

Let ho difficulties discourage you ; they will 
vanish by degrees. Compare one part with another ; 
and, as you read, examine yourself, and inquire — 
What doctrine does this chapter contain ? Do I 
believe it ? — "What promise ? Do I need and desire 
the blessings ? — What precept ? Do I make it the 
rule of my life ? — What good example ? Do I follow 
it ? — What bad example ? Do I avoid it ? And as 
you read, also pray, " Lord, give me faith in thy 
truth ; cause me to walk in the way of thy com- 
mandments ; what I know not, teach thou me ; let 
thy word be a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto 
my path." 




SITTING IN THE TENT DOOK. 

Young readers, this man sitting in the tent door 
(as you see in the engraving), is not Abraham, the 
father of the faithful mentioned in Gen. xviii. 1-2. 
Nor is it Lot, who sat in the gate of Sodom, and 
seeing two angels, rose up to meet them. Gen. xix. 
1-2. But this cut represents the descendants of 
the Midianites, children of the East, ravishing the 
country, and destroying the increase of the earth- 
thieves and robbers. Job, in chapter thirtieth, 
alludes to similar characters. (Please read the 
whole chapter.) 

" Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither 
rob him." " The robbery of the wicked shall de- 
stroy them." 

" Buy the truth, and sell it not ; also, wisdom, 
instruction, and understanding." 

340 



BEADING THE BIBLE— WHEN, WHERE, 
HOW OFTEN? 

" To all who in its truths confide, 

A hope divine is given ; 
That they, through grace, shall firm abide, 
And every threatening storm outride, 

And rest, at last, in heaven." 

How often should we search the Scriptures? 
Daily ? — Yes, daily ; we need daily food. How fre- 
quently do we require the food that nourishes our 
bodies, to sustain our physical system healthfully, 
vigorously ! Do we not require spiritual food, the 
bread of heaven, as frequently as temporal food, to 
strengthen and invigorate our Christian graces ? 
Without constant, healthful nourishment for the 
body we perish — we die ! So also in furthering our 
speed heavenward, in sustaining life eternal, we 
need constant aliment, angels' food, whereof if a 
man eat he shall never die. The children of Israel 
gathered manna daily. 

" Bread of our souls ! whereon w r e feed, 
True manna from on high ; 
Our guide and chart, w r herein we read 
Of realms beyond the sky." 

" Lord, evermore give us this bread." " Give us 
this day our daily bread," is recorded in the Lord's 
Prayer. The soul must be nourished with heavenly 
food daily, else spiritual starvation is certain. The 
noble Bereans searched the Scriptures daily. 
Search the Scriptures daily in your closets, your 

341 



342 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

secret retirements ; drink into the spirit of inspira- 
tion on your bended knees, before God. No one 
neglecting his closet duties is prepared to stem the 
popular current, rise above the world, fight the 
good fight, triumph in God, overcome the world, 
the flesh, and the devil. In the closet, in humble, 
fervent supplication for angels' food, with the 
heavenly pages open before us, we renew our 
strength from day to day, make rapid strides 
heavenward. The word of God is a special aid in 
these retired, devotional communions. It opens 
the door of utterance, lets in the light of heaven 
— glory eternal ! The most holy and useful in all 
ages have spent hours on hours alone with God, 
lifting up " holy hands without wrath or doubting." 
David meditated on God's word day and night (see 
Psalm i.), and thus he was like a " tree planted by 
the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his 
season." Our closet duties prepare for family 
duties, social duties, public duties. 

We should read the sacred oracles in our families 
daily — morning and evening, around the sacred 
altar. In gathering your household's friends, as 
you rise up, and as you lie down, he sure to open 
the volume of divine truth. Let God speak, hear 
what the Lord from heaven will say ; His word is 
life — life, " quick and powerful ;" it produces solem- 
nity, holy reverential fear, opens to the mind and 
heart new fields of thought ; provides suitable, ap- 
propriate language, soul-cheering, divinely eloquent, 
for approaching acceptably the most High. Again, 



TIIE STIINTNG LIGHT. 343 

read the word of life eternal -in your social gather- 
ings, in meetings for prayer and praise, in the 
great congregation, in all assemblings for God's 
service. 

A prayer-meeting without a Bible is not a prayer- 
meeting as God would have it. Family prayer is 
not family prayer, as God would have it, without 
the Bible. This excluding the Bible from our 
regular seasons of social or family worship is 
unwise, the policy of the evil one. You suffer im- 
mense loss by so doing. The Bible is the watch- 
word, the motto, the text-book, the guide, the safe- 
guard, the soul, the life, the power, the foundation 
for prayer, the prayer of faith. The Bible opens 
the way, prepares the way for acceptable, heartfelt 
devotion. The Bible enlightens, invigorates, stim- 
ulates, kindles the soul joyfully, brightens hope, 
confirms faith. Beading the Bible adds interest to 
your social gatherings, holy unction. It fills the 
mouth with arguments divine, supplies appropriate 
spiritual language for supplication. Let God speak, 
utter His voice in your families and prayer-meet- 
ings. Friends, read the Bible ; read it in your 
meetings for prayer and praise ; read it in your 
families while gathered around the family altar. 
Bead it attentively, reverentially, prayerfully, with 
self-examination. Bead it, meditate upon it, digest 
it, bring it home to every heart. The influence of 
this sacred volume on the mind and heart of the 
hearers, is salutary on the hearts of your little ones ; 
often quick and powerful ; sharper than a two- 



344 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

edged sword, convicting and converting. " The 
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." 
Take the Bible, beloved, he sure to take it — the 
Book of books. Make the Scriptures your sun, 
your shield, a lamp to your feet, a light to your 
path. The Bible is the bright and morning star, 
the hope of glory. 

" The Bible is the Christian's prize, 
The source of all his happiness ; 
He feeds upon its sacred truths, 
And drinks the streams of heavenly bliss." 

The studying the Bible must be not only a daily 
business, but a business of life, business unceasing. 
Once reading of other books may suffice : not so 
with God's Book ; the longer we live, the more 
earnestly, perseveringly, and prayerfully should we 
examine its sacred pages, and treasure their con- 
tents in our hearts. The Bible must be our guide, 
our counsellor, our instructor, a lamp to our feet, 
and a light to our path as long as we live, the 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, 
the first and the last. " Search the Scriptures, 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and 
they are they which testify of Me," saith the Lord 
Jesus. 

" This is the field, where hidden lies 
The pearl of price unknown ; 
That merchant is divinely wise 
Who makes the pearl his own." 




WATER-SKINS, OR GOAT-SKIN BOTTLES. 



These are made by stripping off the skin of a goat or 
kid, from the neck downward, without ripping it, only 
cutting off the legs and the tail. The hole left by one 
of the forelegs answers the purpose of a spout, while 
the rest are tightly sewed up. It is filled by the neck, 
which is afterward tied, like the mouth of a sack. Into 
this vessel is put water, or milk and wine, which are 
kept more fresh and sweet this way than they can be in 
any other. They are used, indeed, to carry almost 
every kind of provision. Such were the wine-bottles, 
old, and rent, and«bound up, of the cunning Gibeomtes. 
Joshua, ix. 4. 

These bottles our Saviour had in view, when he said, 
"Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else 
the bottles break and the wine runneth out, and the 
bottles perish." Matt. ix. 17. 

345 



THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. 

" The Bible ! the Bible ! blest volume of truth, 
IIow sweetly it smiles on the season of youth! 
It bids us seek early the pearl of great price, 
Ere the heart is enslaved in the bondage of vice." 

Nine reasons why the Bible should be the text- 
book in schools and families : 

1. Because it is God's book — the Book of books — 
the book above all books, the best of all books. 

" The Bible ! in this book alone, 
We find God's will made known ; 
And here his love to man is shown." 

2. Because it is a fountain of purity, and all the 
streams issuing from this pure fountain must be 
pure. "Doth a fountain send forth at the same 
place sweet water and bitter?" James, iii. 11. 

."The words of the Lord are pure words : as silver 
tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times." 
Psa. xii. 6. Every thing from a pure and holy God 
must be pure and holy. 

" Men's books with heaps of chaff are stored ; 
God's book doth golden grains afford. 
Then leave the chaff, and spend thy pains 
In gathering up the golden grains." 

.3. The word of God is life, it is spirit, it is power; 
it convicts, converts, sanctifies, purifies — makes 
meet for heaven, for glory eternal. No human 
composition is comparable to the Bible in reaching 
the heart, convicting of " sin, of righteousness, and 
of a judgment to come." " For the word of God is 
quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- 

346 



TTTE SINNING LTOTTT. 341 

edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow ; 
and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of 
the heart." Heb. xiv. 12. All the sinners that 
have ever been awakened to spiritual life, regener- 
ated, sanctified, glorified, have been made thus 
pure, holy, and glorious, through the instrumental- 
ity of the word of God, its light and life-giving, 
soul-kindling power. " Seeing ye have purified 
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit 
unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye 
love one another with a pure heart fervently." 
" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
incorruptible — by the w T ord of God, which liveth 
and abideth forever." 1 Peter, ii. 22, 23. " That 
was the true light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world." John, i. 9. "Of his own 
will begat he us, with the word of truth, that we 
should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." 
James, i. 18. 

4. The Bible should be made the text-book in 
all families and schools, because God has left us 
recorded examples of the saving power of his word, 
in saving the rising age, even from infancy. The 
instruction imparted by Hannah in training little 
Samuel, her first-born, the child of many prayers, 
was doubtless drawn from holy inspiration. She 
had no human authors on the subject of family dis- 
cipline from whom to receive light in rearing the ten- 
der thought ; nor was it necessary. Had she had the 
same facilities that we have at the present day, the 



348 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

numerous publications on the question of family 
government, Hannah would never have substituted 
one of them for the law and the testimony— the 
fire, flint, and hammer of God's word. Mark the 
happy result of her decision, and the fulfilment also 
of her covenant vow — to lend Samuel to the Lord 
forever. Who was Samuel, what his life, his death ? 
What the glory that followed ? What light shone 
brighter, even to the perfect day ? Young Timothy 
is another beautiful example of Bible teaching ; he 
was made wise unto salvation through the medium 
of the Holy Scriptures from his childhood. God 
has left these " apples of gold" on record, and many 
others, for our instruction, saying — parents, teach- 
ers — " Go ye and do likewise !" 

5. Another reason for taking the Bible for the 
text-book in the impartation of light and life to 
children and youth — it is a most beautiful, sublime, 
and perfect specimen of composition. Although 
many hundreds of thousands of books have been 
written in different ages by wise and learned men, 
even the best of them will bear no comparison with 
the Bible, in respect either to religion, morality, 
history, or purity and sublimity of composition. 
Perhaps no man was ever better qualified to pro- 
nounce his judgment in this matter than the lato 
Sir William Jones, who was one of the most learned 
men that ever lived. He says : " I have regularly 
and attentively read the Holy Scriptures, and am 
of the opinion that this volume, independent of its 
divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more 



thp: shining light. 349 

exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important 
history, and finer strains, both of poetry and elo- 
quence, than could be collected within the same 
compass from all other books that were ever com- 
posed in any age or nation." " The fairest produc- 
tions of human art, after a few perusals, like 
gathered flowers, wither in our hands and lose their 
fragrancy ; but these unfading plants of paradise 
become, as w r e are accustomed to them, still more 
and more beautiful ; their bloom appears to be 
daily heightened, fresh odors are emitted, and new 
sw r eets are extracted from them. He who hath 
once tasted their excellencies, will desire to taste 
them again ; and he who tastes them oftenest, will 
relish them be^t." 

" Friends, light your torches here, 
And darkness never more you'll fear ; 
They'll guide you through the heavenly road — 
This star is God's own Holy Word." 

6. Again, the Bible should be the text-book or 
foundation of all intellectual and religious training, 
for wherever its blessed doctrines and precepts are 
embraced, treasured in the heart, and carried out 
practically in every-day life, there true grace pre- 
vails, true wisdom shines, and what things soever 
are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good 
report. To verify the proof of this assertion, 
instance Scotland. Here " rich and poor, bond 
and free," at morn and eve assemble round the 
family hearth ; the verses are sung, the chapter 
read, and prayers sent up to heaven. Hence the 



350 THE SHINING LIGIIT. 

children, like Timothy of old, know the Scriptures 
from their youth. Every man and woman and 
child read the Bible and write their own name. 
Hence, comparatively speaking, you find no Scotch- 
men in the almshouse, penitentiary, or state-prison. 
" It's the Bible, the blessed Bible, that does the 
work, through faith, the holy, sanctifying influences 
of the Holy Spirit. Let the Bible prevail — the 
world is saved, salvation is at our doors." 

" The Bible ! the Bible ! the valley shall ring 
And hill tops re-echo the notes that we sing ; 
Our banners, inscribed with its precepts and rules, 
Shall long wave in triumph, the joy of our schools/' 

7. The Bible should be made the text-book in 
our schools and families from the fact, " the Bible, 
just now, is assailed by a most remarkable multipli- 
city and diversity of enemies. Atheism, denying 
God ; Atheism, doubting God ; Deism, dreaming of 
God ; Pantheism, generalizing God ; and Polythe- 
ism, analyzing God — are all, with nearly equal 
inveteracy, still, as ever, opposed to the revelation 
of God. But, besides these ancient and gigantic 
hostilities, innumerable inferior, and arrogant, and 
artful agencies of infidelity are constantly at work 
around us, insidiously sapping the foundations of 
our highest and noblest hopes. The Bible itself is 
the best antidote to this poison." 

8. Again, the Bible should be the first, midst, 
last, always, in educating the rising age ; for God 
Himself indicates the fact, gives line upon line, 
precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, 



TIIE SHINING LIGHT. 351 

from Genesis to Revelation. For want of space, 
we cite one passage only, by way of illustration : 
" And these words which I command thee this day 
shall be in thy heart ; and thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and 
when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them 
for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as 
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write 
them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." 
Deut. vi. 6-9. 

9. Finally, the Bible should be the text-book, the 
first thing, and the last thing, in the cultivation of 
the youthful mind and heart, for by it we are to be 
judged at the final day. " He that rejecteth me, 
and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth 
him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall 
judge him in the last day." John, xii. 48. 

The Bible is, beyond all controversj^, the best 
book of education in the world. It is the best 
book for the formation of children's minds ; the best 
book for the acquisition and preservation of a pure 
idiomatic style in their native language ; the best 
book to promote and secure the purposes of family 
government ; the best book to make our children 
enlightened and good citizens of the Republic ; the 
best book, in fine, to preserve them from all evil, 
and train them up in all good. 

Our education needs a religious element ; for it 
is not education alone that will save us; it will 



352 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

merely train a skilful race of gladiators for tlie 
arena of political strife. The only source of that 
element of safety is the word of God. And if you 
take the word of God from your common and 
public schools, you are teaching infidelity and 
practical atheism to the w T hole nation. You are 
filling the mind with elements that, without the 
safeguard of divine truth, are sure to become fiery, 
bitter, and poisonous. 

In its general influence over the minds of our 
children and over the whole business of education, 
the Bible in our families and schools is invaluable. 

" The Bible ! the Bible ! we hail it with joy, 
Its truths and its glories our tongues shall employ ; 
Well sing of its triumphs, well tell of its worth, 
And send its glad tidings afar o'er the earth." 



This is the word of everlasting life ; this is the 
fountain from whence all thy comforts flow ; this is 
the bread of life ; this is the fortress of thy faith, 
the sword of the Spirit, thy buckler and defence. 

Oh, meditate well herein ; search, read, hear, 
mark, learn ; so shalt thou find it heavenly manna 
to the soul. 

This is the word of God ; canst thou enough 
reverence it ? canst thou enough esteem and delight 
in it? 

Every line droppeth peace as the honey-comb ; 
every page aboundeth with gladness and with good 
tidings, as the ocean is filled with water. 




AN OLD TOWEB AT KIII>. 



An old tower at Riha, called the Tower of Zacheus, 
was near the first encampment of Israel at Gilgal, after 
crossing the Jordan in sight of Jericho. Here Joshua 
saw the man who came to be captain of the Lord's 
host. " And it came to pass when Joshua w r as by 
Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and be- 
hold there stood a man over against him, with his 
sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him 
and said, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ? And 
he said, Nay ; but as captain of the host of the Lord 
am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the 
earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith 
my Lord to his servant ?" Joshua, v. 13, 14. 

What a beautiful example ! " Speak, Lord, for thy 
servant heareth." So let it be evermore. 

353 



CLOSET WORK THE WORK. -NO. I. 

" Svreet closet I love thee, 'tis good to be hero, 
'Mid glories resplendent, and Jesus so near ; 
In business most noble at heaven's high court, 
Where daily the saints of all nations resort." 

CLOSET DUTY — THE DUTY. 

Flee to the closet. Are you tempted ? haste to the 
closet. Are you in trouble or trial, in affliction of 
any kind ? speed you to the closet. Go from the 
closet to the prayer-meeting ; from the prayer-meeting 
to the closet. Go from the closet to the sanctuary 
duties ; from the sanctuary duties to the closet. No 
one can pray well in public who does not pray much 
in the closet. Go to your closet ; visit your closet ; 
make the closet a special, a frequent resort. Go to 
your closet at early dawn, at mid-day, at even-tide. 
Commence the day in your closet. Take the Bible, 
the word of life ; meditate therein, get your soul on 
Jire, the fire of God's love. Go from your closet to 
the family altar, to your daily toil. Go from your 
closet to the sanctuary, the house of prayer. No one 
is duly prepared for family, social, or public duties, 
save from the closet. Make the closet your home, 
your resort, your hiding-place, your delight, your joy. 
Young convert, visit your closet, visit it often. It is 
your safeguard, your hope. The first step to a down 
ward course is the neglect of the closet. 

354 



"JSTO TIME TO PRAY?" 

Indeed ! What is time ? Whose is it ? Who made 
time ? Is time yours, or God's ? Has God given you 
time to live, breathe, walk, talk, pray ? Why not pray, 
then — mind what God says ? God commands you to 
pray, pray always with all prayer and supplication in 
the Spirit. 

" But I have so much business."* 

"Business" indeed! What business? Yours, or 
God's ?" 

* It is said of Martin Luther, that the more he had to do the more 
frequently and fervently he prayed. On one occasion he remarked 
to a friend, " I have so much to do to-day that I shall have to pray 
three hours." May not this custom of the great Reformer contain a 
valuable suggestion to us, who, in the midst of a continual pressure 
of duties, are in danger of being " overcharged," and forgetting to 
seek that relief and strength which alone can be obtained in prayer, 
in earnest supplication to Gtod ? 

355 




CLOSET WORK THE WORK.— NO. II. 

" "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet ; and when thou hast shut 
thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father, which 
seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." — Matt. vi. 6. 

" blest retreat ! to it I flee, 

From earth-born care and strife, 
To hold sweet fellowship with thee, 
My Lord, my light, my life 1" 

So infinitely important is secret communion with 
the Father of spirits, we give line upon line, here a 
little and there a little. Reader, have you a closet? 
By the closet, is to be understood some private place; 
and to s/mt the door, is to offer our secret prayers in 
as private a manner as possible, so that God alone 
may be witness to the solemn transaction between 
himself and us. 

356 



CLOSET WORK — THE WORK. 357 

It is indifferent what place is chosen for the pur 
pose of private prayer ; whether a retired room in a 
house, a barn, a stable, a field, [Gen. xxiv. 63] or any 
other place. And this is encouraging to such as have 
no private room for the purpose of religious retire- 
ment ; the numerous branches of whose families live, 
work, and lodge in the same apartments. God is not 
confined to places ; and a heart engaged with him 
will find a place in which to pour out itself before 
him. David, the king, on one occasion, " came in 
and sat bexore the Lord," in his holy meditations, as 
seen in the engraving, 1 Chiron, xvii. 6. It is one 
advantage, however, to have a convenient oratory, or 
place for prayer ; and if it afford opportunity of 
using the voice without being overheard by others, it 
is still more eligible. It will be found profitable also 
to those who are so favored by divine providence as 
to have the means to furnish their places of retire- 
ment with a copy of the Holy Scriptures, a psalm or 
hymn-book, a few select lives of persons eminent for 
piety, and other works directly calculated to excite 
devout affections, and raise the heart to God and 
divine things. And let it not be forgotten that a 
high degree of responsibility is connected with cir- 
cumstances so favorable to secret intercourse with 
God ; and the consequences of improvement or non- 
improvement will be great. 

What a privilege to be alone with God ! with God 



358 CLOSET WORK THE WORK. 

who hears prayer — who delights to hear it — who loves 
importunity — who waits to be gracious — who is more 
ready to give than earthly parents are to give to their 
children. No wonder the Saviour said, "Enter into 
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to 
thy Father who is in secret." No wonder he " went 
up into a mountain to pray, after he had sent away 
the multitude ;" and that, on another occasion, " ris- 
ing up a great while before day, he went out into a 
solitary place and there prayed." He knew the value 
and the importance of prayer. His heart was too full 
for appropriate utterance in the hearing of the multi- 
tude, and therefore he went where no human eye 
could see, and no human ear could hear him, that he 
might pour out the titterings of a full and bursting 
heart. 

We have many things to pray for which the Sa- 
viour had not. We want forgiveness — he did not. 
"We want sanctification — he did not. Our eternal life 
is in peril through the deceitfulness of sin, and the 
wiles of the devil — his was not. He had life in him- 
self. He was the fountain of life — we have no 
strength or life out of him. Separated from God, we 
sink and perish. Faith is the tie that binds us to 
him, and prayer is the proper utterance of that faith, 
as well as the indispensable means of giving it strength 
Mind maturity. 

How can we live without prayer ? and how can we 



CLOSET WORK THE WORK. 359 

cany out, practically, the full idea of prayer, without 
a closet ? 

14 My closet — this I need not seek, 
It everywhere is found ; 
Where'er my Saviour's footsteps lead, 
I find is holy ground." 

Is it not probable that Daniel, who was so sensible 
of .the necessity and advantage of prayer, that rather 
' than omit it for one day, subjected himself to the 
frightful penalty of being cast into the lions' den, had 
his stated times for prayer? And that the men who 
sought his ruin had obtained information respecting 
those times — "Now when Daniel knew that the 
writing was signed, he went into his house ; and his 
windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusa- 
lem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and 
prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did 
aforetime. Then these men assembled and found 
Daniel praying, and making supplication before his 
God." David also, in his best days, appears to have 
had stated times for his devotional exercises. " Seven 
times a day do I praise thee."—Ps. cxix. 164. " Even- 
ing, morning, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud." 
— Ps. lv. 17. 

Eliot, the missionary to the Indians, used to set 
apart whole days for prayer, especially when he had 
any remarkable difficulty before him, adopting Dr. 
Preston's mind, that " when. we would have any great 



360 CLOSET WORK THE WORK. 

thing to be accomplished, the best policy is to work 
by an engine which the world sees nothing of." 

Sir Matthew Hale, as upright a judge as England 
ever had, in his letters to his children said, " If I omit 
praying and reading a portion of God's blessed word 
in the morning, nothing goes well with me all the 
day." 

Doddridge said, " He never advanced well in hu- 
man learning without prayer, and that he always 
made most proficiency in his studies when he prayed 
with the greatest fervency." 

Our Saviour gave us an example : " In the morn- 
ing, rising up a great while before day, he went out 
into a solitary place, and there prayed." 

" No time, or place, or form, or posture, is displeas- 
ing to God, if the heart is right. If the heart is 
wrong, all is wrong." 

" He who prays at stated times only, will make but 
poor progress heavenwards. He who prays not at 
stated times, will soon omit all prayer." 

" If there was more prayer there would be more 
converts and fewer critics, more penitents and fewer 
sleepers in our churches." 

There never has been a time in the history of the 
church when more was to be obtained by prayer than 
at present ; never a time when there w T ere so many to 
pray. What power would the church have with God 
now, if every Christian would awake and cry mightily 



SWEET CONVERSATION HEAVENLY. 361 

to God for the overturning of Satan's kingdom, and 
the building up and enlarging of the kingdom of 
God's dear Son ! 

When God's anger was burning against the rebel- 
lious Israelites, Moses prayed, and the fire ceased. 
So when they murmured and rebelled, and God prom- 
ised to make Moses a great people, he prayed, and 
God pardoned them. Isaiah and Hezekiah cried to 
God against Sennacherib, and God 6lew by an angel 
185,000 that very night. 

None of us can be too poor to pray, nor too weak. 
God never grows weary in hearing our prayers. We 
can never ask him for more than he is able to do. 
We may open our mouths wide. Think of all the 
persons we would pray for, all the subjects of prayer. 
He is able to help them all. 

" enter thou thy closet then, 
And shut on thee the door ; 
Exclude the world, and welcome Christ, 
Thy guest for evermore." 



SWEET C0NVERSATI0E— HEAVENLY. 

Nothing sweetens conversation like prayer. Friends, do you wish 
your conversation pleasant, cheerful, animating, edifying, profitable ? 
Pray, ask God to order your speech aright, to give grace and wisdom. 
Does a Christian friend call, commence the interview with prayer. 
Seek God's blessing that '' the words of your mouth, and the medita- 
tions of your heart may be acceptable in his sight/' Acknowledge 
God in all things. Nothing tends so directly to give conversation a 
pleasant, happy, edifying, profitable direction as wisdom from above, 
received in answer to prayer. 




gipsies' encampment. 



The Gipsies are a wild and numerous race. They 
are a curse to the countries in which they live, £nd a 
terror to the farmers through whose lands they stroll. 
They seem utterly destitute of conscience, and boast of 
dishonesty as if it were a heavenly virtue. The men 
are horse-jockeys and tinkers, and also cheat and steal, 
as branches of business. The women tell fortunes, 
and in this way get access to houses through ignorant 
and superstitious domestics. They are so expert at 
thieving, that they will hide valuable articles about 
their persons while interesting their dupes about golden 
promises for the future. If, in their wanderings, they 
are denied a spot on which to pitch their tents, woe to 



the offending farmer. 



362 



LIGHTNING PRAYER. 

11 Prayer makes the clarken'd clouds withdraw, 
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw, 
Gives exercise to faith and love, 
Brings every blessing from above 

Tins lightning prayer, or lifting up the soul to God 
ejaculatorily, is a precious privilege, no prison bars 
or gates can hinder. 

The Christian often finds this electrifying, tele- 
graphic intercourse with the King of kings profitable, 
necessaiy, indispensable, when he is unable to retire 
from the society and business of the world. What 
supplies of Divine influence may be thus obtained, 
what deliverance from anxiety, what victories over 
self and Satan ! Enough to say, in the depths of the 
heart, " Lord help me," or, " Lord, I am thine, — save 
me," even amid the hurry of a harvest day, or the 
bustle of the shop, or the excitement and provocations 
of the market and the court-room. " A sigh can 
reach his ear :" the falling of a tear, or the upward 
glancing of the soul, may array on our behalf the re- 
sources of Omnipotence. Such application to the 
giver of all grace keeps up in us a just sense of his 
presence, oversight, and all-sufficiency, as also of our 
entire dependence upon Him ; and so proves a help to 
fidelity, watchfulness, and spirituality. It serves to 
counteract the influence of things that are seen and 

363 



364 LIGHTNING PRAYER. 

temporal. It nourishes in us that devotional frame 
which is essential to the safety and strength, and 
which seems to be contemplated in the law which re- 
quires our unceasing supplications. " Prayer is the 
wall that compasses the city ; there must be no gap 
in it." 

The Holy Scriptures abound with examples illus- 
trative of this lifting the eyes to the hills from which 
" cometh our help." 

This practice indicates a firm belief of God's provi- 
dence, that regulates and controls all the circum- 
stances and events of our lives. He who is in the 
habit of thus lifting up his heart, must cherish a con- 
stant sense of dependence upon Him, and an abiding 
faith in his ability and disposition to help him. It is, 
therefore, evidently characteristic of a spiritually- 
minded person. It is only the man who lives near to 
God, and who cherishes high and exalted thoughts 
of Him as the portion of his soul, whose prayer will 
naturally rise to Him in the time in which he will 
have special need of His interposition. 

But as this habit of lifting up the heart in prayer 
to God is characteristic of the God-fearing and God- 
loving Christian, so it is eminently calculated to pro- 
mote the spiritual interests of the soul. 

"We can plead for the neglect of this duty no such 
excuses as are sometimes pleaded for the neglect of 
stated family or even secret prayer. It is a duty the 



LIG11TNING PRAYER. 305 

performance of which will not interfere in the least 
with our dail} r avocations. The plowman need not 
stop his plow, the mechanic need not lay aside his 
tools, the merchant need not leave his counting room, 
the seamstress need not cease to ply her needle, the 
traveler need not get off the car or coach. No, every 
work of the hands, and even of the head, may go on 
without interruption. 

Although ejaculatory prayer is suitable at all times, 
there are, however, certain times to which it may be 
regarded as peculiarly adapted — such as when Ave 
awake in the morning — lie down to sleep at night — - 
when about to engage in solemn acts of formal wor- 
ship — when about to undertake any thing of special 
importance — when in company, and especially in the 
company of those who do not fear God — when called 
to administer reproof, or to speak to persons about 
the interests of their souls. It may be well for us to 
take special note of these seasons as suitable for this 
exercise, that we may learn this holy art. When once 
the art is learned, the occasion w 7 ill suggest the pro- 
priety of its use. 

Dear reader, may you know, in your happy expe- 
rience, the blessed effects of this practice — a practice 
which, w 7 e have reason to believe, was at>one time in 
much more frequent use than it now is. Fail not to 
observe your stated seasons of family and secret 
prayer, but he sure also to carry with you through the 



366 LIGHTNING PRAYER. 

day the spirit of prayer — to make frequent use of this 
means of communication which, like a telegraph, your 
Heavenly Father has instituted between earth and 
heaven. You have free access to it at any time, 
whether it be by night or by day. There will be no 
charge for any dispatch, be your words few or many. 
You w 7 ill also be sure to get a return. And what is 
more, no enemy can ever cut the wires of this tele- 
graph. Oh, then use it often ! By so doing, you will 
have your desires excited for that better country to 
which you are going, and be prepared for the eternal 
joys that aw r ait you there. 

" Let your first thoughts by morning light, 
Ascend to God on high ; 
And in the evening raise your thoughts 
Above the starry sky." 



"Who ever knew an eminently holy mail who did 
not spend much of his time in prayer ? Did ever a 
man exhibit ranch of the spirit of prayer who did 
not devote much time to his closet ? Whitefield says : 
" Whole days and weeks have I spent, prostrate on 
the ground, in silent or vocal prayer." " Fall upon 
your knees, and grow there," is the language of an- 
other, who knew that whereof he affirmed. These, in 
spirit, are but specimens of a feature in the experience 
of eminent piety which is absolutely uniform. 



# 



SriBi..- . : •! .-..v.; .;„'- Mfe 



ills 




ARABS CAMPING OUT. 



The Arabs, since the days of the Patriarchs, have 
ever led the life of wandering shepherds. They live in 
movable tents, made of goat's and camel's hair. The 
care of sheep and cattle is left mostly to the women. 
They not unfrequently plunder without mercy all who 
are unable to resist them. Paul first preached the 
Gospel in Arabia. Gal. i. 17. Christian churches were 
subsequently founded, and many of their tribes em- 
braced Christianity prior to the fifth century ; most of 
which appears to have been tinctured with the Nesto- 
rian heresy. 

367 



OSS 




BETHLEHEM. 

Bethlehem, the birthplace of David and of Christ, 
in the tribe of Judah, is £ix miles south by west of Jeru- 
salem. Its memory is delightfully associated with the 
names of Boaz and Buth. Above all, it is hallowed as 
the place where the Bedeemer was born. Over that 
lovely spot the guiding-star hovered ; there the Eastern 
sages worshipped the King of kings ; and there, where 
David watched his flocks and praised God, were heard 
the songs of angelic hosts at the Saviour's birth. Luke, 
ii. 8-14. 

" And there were in the same country shepherds 
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by 
night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, 
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them : 
and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto 
them : Fear not ; for behold, I bring you good tidings 
of great joy, which shall be to all people." 

368 



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PREFACE TO PART III. 



A GOOD FAMILY BOOK. 




11 At first, the pages of the book 
Are blank and purely fair, 
Bat time soon writeth memories, 
And painteth pictures there. 

" Love is the little golden clasp 
That bindeth up the trust ; 
Oh, break it not ; lest all the leaves 
Shall scatter and be lost." 



Who can prize it ? Gold, precious gems ? Young 
man, have you considered its value duly ? Parent, 
have you ? its salutary influence on the mind and the 
heart ? the help it affords in training your offspring 
in the way they should go ? We say ' a good family 
book.' What do we mean by this ? Not merely 
truthful, but solid also, pure, edifying, enlightening, 
sanctifying. One that utters freely, fearlessly, meekly, 
all the words of this life, keeping back no part of the 
price, reformatory. Such a book is invaluable. It 
w T ill speak when nothing else can or will speak, to 
father, mother, son and daughter, man servant and 
maid servant. The silent influence of such a book in 
the family, and, through ten thousand families, on the 
heart of the great community, is briefly stated by a 
writer unknown to us, in the following paragraph : — 

" A large portion of our best moral impressions and 

370 



A GOOD FAMILY BOOK. 371 

sentiments have been suggested, reiterated, and fast- 
ened on the mind by the family press. The pulpit 
can do much ; parental instruction in many cases does 
much ; but the press is, in the present day, necessary 
to both. Let any reader of a well-written, religious 
family book open its pages, and consider thoughtfully 
its contents. There are sometimes from seventy-five 
to one hundred separate and distinct articles, each one 
conveying an idea, a fact, or a sentiment, stated or 
illustrated so as to produce an effect, in enlarging the 
reader's store of knowledge, or giving a right direc- 
tion to thought, feeling, or action. Must not all this 
have its influence, and in the aggregate a mighty in- 
fluence, upon the reader ? No reflecting man can fail 
to see that a family volume, carefully and prayerfully 
prepared, sound in theology, elevated in its moral 
tone, and withal interesting in its contents, must exert 
a great and blessed influence upon domestic life. 
Children growing up under such influences, are far 
more likely to be intelligent, correct in their opinions 
and morals, and better prepared for the active duties 
of life, than they could possibly have been without it." 
" He that walketh with wise men, shall be w T ise." 
How far these truths comport with the above 
delineation, meet the wants of the age, we leave our 
readers to judge. 

" A good book lives when you are dead, 
Light on the darkened mind it sheds, 
Good seed it sows, from age to age, 
Through all this mortal pilgrimage, 
It nurses the gems of holy trust, 
It wakes untired when you are dust." 







THE MARRIED RELATION. -NO. I. 

14 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: 1 
will make him an help meet for him" Gen. ii. 8. " Whoso findeth 
a wife, findeth a good thing, and obiaineth favor of the Lord." Prov 
xviii. 22. 



41 Domestic happiness ! thou only bliss 
Of paradise that hast survived the fall. 
Happy they! the happiest of their kind, 
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate 
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their being blend." 

But " Can two walk together except they be agreed ?" 
The command is positive: " Be not unequally 
yoked together with unbelievers ; for what fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what 
communion hath light with darkness ? and what con- 
cord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he 
that believeth with an infidel ?" 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 

372 



THE MARRIED RELATION. -NO. II. 

PREMATURE MATRIMONY. 

Marriage is a divine and beautiful arrangement, 
as designed in God's providence ; it is the blending 
of two spirits into one. Man is incomplete without 
his wife : he has strength, she has beauty. " It is not 
good that man should be alone." " Whoso findeth a 
wife findeth a good thing." 

" Of all the joys that man can feel, 
The purest sure are there ! 
While o'er his heart affections steal, 
Like balmy summer air ; 
His wife's caress, his children's smile, 
Unlike the world, are free from guile." 

Premature marriages are among the greatest evils 
of the times — the result of fancy. The ball-room or 
evening party never develops real character. Matches 
made at such places, or made under similar circum- 
stances, are not of the class that originate in Heaven. 
They more generally are conceived in the opposite 
place, and bring forth only iniquity. The true way 
to learn each other is to do it at home, in the parlor, 
in the kitchen, and on occasions that test the temper. 
We see the result of these unions in the almost daily 
divorces that are taking place ; in the running away 
of husbands — leaving their wives and children to 
starve — and in the elopement of wives. 

373 



"TWO BETTER THAN ONE." 

HUSBANDS AND WIVES — W1VKS AND HUSBANDS. 

" Sweetest names to mortals given, 
Father, Mother, Home, and Heaven, 
Husband, Wife. To live — how drear 
"Were those banished from our sphere." 

Husbands and wives should make each other a 
subject of special prayer daily. 

The most happy, prosperous, joyful husbands and 
wives are those who pray most in faith, look to God 
evermore unitedly for his continued, special interpo- 
sitions and gracious outpourings. Thus their hearts 
are knit together in heavenly union. 

" Oh ! there's a theme to make each dream 
And power to make e^ch hour 
As light and sweet as the bloom at our feet, 
Which is cull'd from the May-day flower." 

A daily prayer from the heart of a pure and pious 
wife, for a husband engrossed in the pursuit of wealth 
or fame, is a chain of golden words that links his 
name every day with the name of God. He may 
snap it three hundred and sixty-five times in a year, 
for many years, but the chances are, that, in time, he 
will mark the sundered filaments, and seek to re-unite 
them in an everlasting bond. 

" Oft as clouds my path o'erspread 
Doubtful where my steps should tread, 
She with judgments steadj^ my 
Marks and smooths the better way." 
374 



FAMILY DUTIES-MORNING AND EVENING. 

" To prayer, to prayer ; — for the morning breaks, 
And earth in her Maker's smiles awakes; 
His light is on all below, above, 
The light of gladness, the light of love. 
then, on the breath of the early air, 
Send up the incense of grateful prayer." 

In the evening — 

" To prayer for the glorious sun is gone, 
And the gathering darkness of night comes on, 
Like a curtain from heaven's high hand it flows, 
To shade the couch where his children repose. 
Then kneel, while the watching stars are bright, 
And give your last thoughts to the Guardian of night." 

Never hurry your morning and evening services 
in your family. Can any thing be lost by giving 
sufficient time in the closet and around the family 
altar ? Is it not gain every way, temporally and 
spiritually '( Let no secular business hinder you or 
drive you hence. Say to the world, " Stay thou here 
while I go yonder and pray " — to the tempter, " Get 
thee hence, Satan, it is written thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God ; and him only shalt thou serve." 

In these hallowed scenes, he sure and have all your 
family present, — little ones and great ones, man-ser- 
vants and maid-servants. Honor God, and God will 
honor you. 

" How sweet to join in social prayer, 

And mingle hearts with those we love, 
Our mutual woes and comforts share, 
Sweet fellowship like that above." 
375 



THE GIFT OF GIFTS— A. SPECIAL GIFT. 

" Rich dews of grace come o'er us, 
In many a gentle shower ; 
And brighter scenes before us, 
Are opening every hour." 

The gift of all gifts — the gift of prayer, the spirit of 
prayer. What is it — what its value? Can yon tell, 
reader, how precions this gift is — the gift of prayer, 
the spirit of prayer — to have power with God, as Jacob 
had, to prevail with the Almighty ? Such a gift cannot 
be valued with the gold of Ophir, the precious onyx, or 
the sapphire. Man knoweth not the price of it ; silver 
cannot purchase it, neither gold, millions on millions ! 
A man that prays well, prevailingly, preaches well, lives 
well — a man that prays in the Spirit, always, with all 
prayer and supplication, watching thereto with all per- 
severance and supplication for all saints, is a fyoly man, 
a consecrated man, a very useful man. To have a 
spirit of prevailing prayer with God, we must live in 
the Spirit, loalk in the Spirit, crucify the affections and 
lusts, live soberly, righteously, godly, " lift up holy 
hands everywhere, present the body a living, continual 
sacrifice." No one can pray this acceptable, prevail- 
ing prayer in the Spirit, while regarding iniquity in the 
heart, living in pride, lust, self-conceit, worldly con- 
formity. " If any man love the world, the love of the 
Father is not in him." 

376 



FAMILY •MUSIC. 

"Yes! there is music all around us, 
If we only list awilo ; 
And there is beauty everywhere, 
The home of childhood to beguile." 

Music, as well as the reading of our language, 
should be taught in every family, in every school and 
seminary. Its beautiful results are many. 

1st. Singing improves the voice, takes away harsh- 
ness, sweetens its tone, and gives it greater compass. 

2d. Singing improves speaking. 

3d. Singing refines the taste, elevates the affections, 
improves the heart, assists devotion. 

4th. Singing is a delightful, interesting, and profit- 
able part of worship — especially domestic. 

5th. Singing is an element of power. 

Parent, teach your children to sing ; commence 
early. Teach them to sing hymns of praise, of a pure 
and elevated character. 

A more delightful scene cannot be presented this 
side of heaven, than when parents, with their sons 
and daughters surrounding the domestic circle, de- 
voutly unite their voices in sacred song. 

" Domestic happiness, thou only bliss 
Of Paradise that has escaped the fall." 

Children and youth should be taught to love music, 

377 



SINGING TJ) THE LORD. 

" Sing unto the Lord, all ye lands, sing unto him a new song, for praise 
is comely for the uprighV 

" The man that hath no music in himself, 
Nor is not moved by concord of sweet sounds, 
Is lit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; 
The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 
And his affections dark as Erebus ; 
Let no such man be trusted." 

Sing ? Yes, sing — " sing praises." 

" There is music all around us, 
If we only list awhile." 

" It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 
to sing praises to thy name, O Most High. To show 
forth thy loving-kindness every morning, and thy 
faithfulness every night." 

" Sing unto him a new song." 

" Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands." 
. . . " Make his praise glorious." " I will bless the 
Lord at all times," says the sweet singer of Israel, 
" his praise shall be continually in my mouth." " The 
joy of the Lord is our strength." 

We can sing our cares away easier than we can 
reason them away. Sing in the morning. The birds 
are the earliest to sing, the birds are without care, 
without sin. They sing at evening. Singing is the 
last thing that robins do. When they have done their 
daily work, flown their last flight, picked up their last 

378 



SINGING TO THE LOKD. 379 

morsel of food, and cleaned^heir bill on a napkin of 
a bough, then, on a topmost twig, they sing one song 
of praise. They sleep sweeter for it. They dream 
music ; for sometimes in the night they break forth in 
singing, and stop suddenly after the first note, startled 
by their own voice. O that we might sing morning 
and evening, and let song touch song all the way 
through ! 

O that we could put songs under our burdens ! Let 
us extract the sense of sorrow by song. m Sing in the 
house. Teach your children to sing. When troubles 
come, go at them with songs. A singing child is not 
far from a happy one. Mothers, see to it that the 
rudiments of music are early taught your little ones. 
Sing with them and pray for them, and let your 
family be not only a praying circle, but a singing one 
also. When griefs rise up, sing them down. Lift the 
voice of song against cares. Praise God by singing ; 
that will lift you above trials of every sort. Attempt 
it. They sing in heaven ; and among God's people 
upon earth, song is the appropriate language of Chris- 
tian feeling. A Christian alive to God, on the mount, 
full of faith and the Holy Spirit, abstaining from all 
appearance of evil, will be joyful in the Lord, and 
this holy joy will give vent in songs of praise. The 
Christian thus joyful will sing, tune his heart in 
grateful thanksgiving, make a joyful noise unto the 
Lord. David, the sweet singer of Israel, was con- 



SINGING WITH GRACE A DUTY. 

The command of God to sing praises is equally posi- 
tive with that of prayer or supplication, 

" Sing unto the Lord, all ye lands ; sing praises, sing 
unto Him, sing psalms unto Him." " Sing unto the 
Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation 
of the saints." "Let everything that hath breath 
praise the Lord." 

Have we any more right to sing by proxy (by the 
mouth of sinners), than to pray by proxy ? Why not 
employ some one of fluent speech to do our pray- 
ing, while we look on and gaze with wonder at his mar- 
vellous gifts ! Will our souls be benefited ! Is God 
well pleased ! 

Sing with grace in your hearts — when ? where ? Here 
are four or five persons seated in the choir, for what ? 
To praise God for some five hundred or two thousand ? 

And who are these four songsters in the choir to lead 
the worship in God's house for the whole audience? 
Humble, meek, devoted followers of Christ, or the gay, 
proud, fashionable, self-conceited? Some of our city 
churches sacrifice to pride one, two, or three thousand 
dollars of God's money annually, to sustain this opera- 
business. Is it a wonder God frowns upon this popery, 
sends leanness or spiritual death into their souls ? 

Says the " Christian Examiner :" " A fashionable 
quartette choir costs from $1,000 to $5,000 a year. 

380 




ALWAYS YOUNG, ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL, 

"Kor know we anything more fair 
Than is the smile upon their face ; 
Flowers laugh before them on their beds, 
And fragrance in their footing treads." 

Keep young, blooming, sweet as the morning rose, 
till three score and ten ? What hinders ? We have 
seen old men and women in years, sprightly, full of 
life and vigor. The great secret of this continued 
bloom of spring is virtuous activity — a life of useful- 
ness, constancy in doing good, with all the might — 
cultivating a meek, gentle placid, and submissive 
temper, rising early, keeping the blood circulating, 
all the day, in doors and out, in deeds of mercy. 

There is no surer destroyer of youth, or youth's 
privileges, powers, and delights, than yielding the 
spirit to the empire of ill temper and selfishness. 

To believe good, and do good truly and trustfully, 

381 



382 

is the healthiest human* condition. To take events 
cheerfully, and promote the happiness of others, is the 
way to insure the spring of existence. 

Content and kindliness are the soft vernal showers 
and fostering sunny warmth that keeps a man's na- 
ture and being fresh and green. If we would leave 
a gracious memory behind us, there is no way better 
to secure it than by living graciously, glorifying God 
" in our bodies and in our spirits which are his." We 
know individuals whose heads are frosted over by the 
hand of time, and yet lively as at sixteen, flying hither 
and thither on wings of love. 

Persons temperate in all things, full of faith and 
good works, diligent in business, fervent in spirit, 
doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with 
God, causing the widow's heart to sing for joy, never 
grow old. Doing good, imbibing the Spirit and deeds 
of the divine Master, is what makes one young, beau- 
tiful, angelic. His " youth is renewed like the eagle's." 
Such an one, instead of growing older and older, the 
longer he lives, grows younger and younger. 

This was true of Moses. When a hundred and 
twenty years old, " his eye was not dim, nor his natu- 
ral force abated." Deut. xxxiv. 7. 

It is slothfulness, inactivity, crying, " Yet a little 
sleep, a little slumber, a little folding the hands to 
sleep," that kill so many. " Sloth, like rust, con- 
sumes faster than labor wears." " The desire of the 



ALWAYS YOUNG, ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL. 3g3 

slothful killeth him." " Why stand ye here all the 
day idle?" Lazy folks die before their time; they 
don't " live out half their days." 

" Time is eternity ; 
Pregnant with all eternity can give ; 
Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile ; 
Who murders time, he crushes in the birth 
A power ethereal, only not adored." 

Who is old ? A wise man will never rust out. As 
long as he can move and breathe, he will do some- 
thing for himself, his neighbor, or for posterit} r . Al- 
most to the last hour of his life, Washington was at 
work. So were Franklin, Young, Howard, and 
Newton. The vigor of their lives never decayed. 
No rust Tnarred their spirits. It is a foolish idea to 
suppose that we must lie down and die because we 
are old. Who is old ? We repeat, not the man of 
energy ; not the day -laborer in science, art, or benevo- 
lence ; but he only who suffers his energies to waste 
away and the springs of life to become motionless ; on 
whose hands the hours drag heavily, to whom all 
things wear the garb of gloom. There are scores of 
grey-headed men we should prefer, in any important 
enterprise, to those young gentlemen who fear and 
tremble at approaching shadows, and turn pale, as at 
a lion in their path, at a harsh word or a frown. 

Young ladies, how is it with you ? Are you grow- 
ing younger and younger, more and more beautiful, 



384 ALWAYS YOUNG, ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL. 

as you advance in years ? Do you not wish to be un- 
changeably young, beautiful, angelically so, blooming 
as the rose, always cheerful, always happy ? Be good, 
and do good. 

A good woman never grows old. Years may pass 
over her head, but if benevolence and virtuous purity 
dwell in her heart, she is as cheerful as when the 
spring of life first opened to her view. When we look 
upon a good woman, we never think of her age ; she 
looks as charming as when the rose of youth first 
bloomed upon her cheek. That rose has not faded 
yet ; it will never fade. In her neighborhood she is 
the friend and benefactor. Who does riot respect and 
love the woman who has passed her days in acts of 
kindness and mercy % We repeat, such a woman 
cannot grow old. She will always be fresh and 
buoyant in spirits, and active in deeds of mercy. If 
the young lady desires to retain the bloom and beauty 
of youth, let her not yield to pride, fashion, or folly ; 
let her be modest, exercise all the graces of the spirit ; 
add to her faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, pa- 
tience, meekness, charity — whatsoever things are true, 
honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, and to 
the close of life she will retain those feelings which 
now make life appear a garden of sweets — ever fresh 
and ever new. 

This heavenly adorning of a meek, quiet, and be 
nevolent spirit is always lovely, always beautiful. 



ALWAYS YOUNG, ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL. 385 

M It never fades, it ne'er grows old, 
Nor fears the rain, nor moth, nor cold, 
It takes no spot, but still refines, 
The more 'tis worn, the more it shines." 

What sight more interesting, beautiful, and instruc- 
tive, than a cheerful, intelligent, pious, active old 
man or woman, posted up on all the reformatory 
movements of the day, blossoming for glory ? It is 
said of the Rev. John Wesley, by the excellent Alex- 
ander Knox, " I met him a few years before his death, 
and declare that every hour spent in his company af- 
forded me fresh reason for esteem and veneration. 
So fine an old man I never saw. The happiness of 
his mind beamed forth in his countenance : every look 
showed how fully he enjoyed 

1 The gay remembrance of a life well spent.' 

In him old age appeared delightful, like an evening 
without a cloud." 

Them that honor God, God will honor « 

" My remnant of days 

I spend to his praise, 
Who died the whole world to redeem : 

Be they many or few, 

My days are his due, 
And they all are devoted to him. M 




SICK FOLKS, AND FOLKS NOT SICK. 

DRUGGING AND KILLING BY INCHES. 

" 'Arise and walk, take up thy bed !' 
At once lie did as Jesus said, 
And from disease was free." 

Some there are who question the propriety of drug- 
ging the stomach to expel disease. Medicine itself 
produces disease. The stomach was made to receive 
and digest nutriment, not drugs. These are, therefore, 
unnatural and unfitted to that important organ of the 
animal economy. When the ph} T sical machinery be- 
comes deranged, strange that by re-deranging it with 
drugs we may put it in order ! When one is sick, the 
philosophy seems to be — make him sicker, that he may 
get well ! 386 



INTEMPERANCE IN EATING. 

" ' Give us this day our daily bread,' 
Aud pies and cakes besides ; 
To load the stomach, pain the head, 
And choke the vital tides." 

1. Intemperance is a crime against ourselves. No 
man lias a right to do anything unworthy of himself, or 
to injure himself. God gave us a soul, and we can 
make it beautiful. It is a crime to tarnish it. 

2. Intemperance is a crime against others, against 
all whom we can influence. 

3. It is a crime against God. 

It is a wicked waste of time and money, a consuming 
God's bounty on lust, that ought to be expended in 
doing good. Health is sacrificed — a pure conscience. 
Every one is solemnly bound to redeem time, study the 
strictest economy and simplicity in his dietetic habits. 
Every moment of time, every farthing of God's money 
that can possibly be redeemed by rigid self-denial, 
by strict, uniformly temperate habits, should be re- 
deemed for purposes of benevolence, deeds of charity 
and mercy. 

Beware, ye time-killers, ye consumers of God's 
bounty on lust, the gratification of a depraved, carnal 
appetite; take heed to yourselves, lest at any time 
your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,- and drunk- 
enness, and cares of this life, and so the day of retribu- 
tion come upon you unawares. 

387 



THE STOMACH— THE MIND— THE SOUL. 

TEMPERANCE IN ALL THINGS. 

" Oh, madness ! to think the use of strongest tea, 
And strongest drinks our chief support of health, 
When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear 
His mighty champion, strong beyond compare, 
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook." 

Millions on millions are expended on tea, that might 
go and should go for salvation, light spiritual, light 
everlasting. Multitudes are as much in bondage, and 
perhaps as great slaves to tea or coffee, as others are 
to strong drink and tobacco ! 

Wesley says : " After talking largely with both men 
and women leaders, we agreed it would prevent great 
expense, as well of health as of time and of money, if the 
poorer people of our society could be persuaded to 
leave off drinking tea. We resolved ourselves to begin 
and set the example. I expected some difficulty in 
breaking off a custom of six-and-twenty years' standing. 
And accordingly, the three first days my head ached, 
more or less, all day long, and I was half asleep from 
morning to night. The third day, on Wednesday, in 
the afternoon, my memory failed almost entirely. In 
the evening I sought my remedy in prayer. On Thurs- 
day morning my headache was gone ; my memory was 
as strong as ever ; and I have found no inconvenience, 
but a sensible benefit in several respects, from that very 
day to this." 




"THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET." 

Have you not heard of it, little readers, over and over? 
Well, here it is. 

" That moss-cover'd vessel I hail'd as a treasure, 

For often at noon, when return' d from the field, 
I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure, 

The purest and sweetest that nature can yield. 
How ardent I seized it, with hands that were glowing, 

And quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell ; 
Then soon, with the emblem of truth overflowing, 

And dripping with coolness it rose from the well — 
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, 
The moss-covered bucket, arose from the well." 



Puke cold water, sweetened with icicles, is the best 
drink. Children should drink the pure water. Away with 
tea and coffee. If you would have the bright eye and clear 
cheek, drink nothing but cool water. 

389 



THE WINE-CUP. 

Young man, that cup of sparkling wine, 

Just lifted to thy lip ! 
Heed well the fate that may be thine 

If that vile draft you sip ; 
A maniac's death, a drunkard's grave, 

In thoughtless mirth you madly brave. 

A prison's gloom, a felon's name, 
A murderer stained with blood, 

A life of woe, a death of shame, 
I see within its purple flood : 

Drink, then, that cup of sparkling wine, 
Young man, and these may all be thine. 

The widow's wail, the orphan's cry, 

The frenzied maniac's yell, 
The bloated cheek, the blood-shot eye 

Are all within the wine-cup's spell ; 
It flings o'er life a rayless gloom, 

And kills for aye beyond the tomb. 

Then taste no more the sparkling cup, 
An adder's tooth is in the wine, 

A simoom's blast to wither up 

All hope of bliss that may be thine ; 

But as a serpent, from thee throw 

The cup that brings but shame and woe. 

390 




SIGNING THE PLEDGE OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 



See them at it, little and big, colored folks and white 
folks. What do you think of it, readers ; would it not be 
better, by far, to go to Jesus for a new heart of love and a 
right spirit, seek first the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness ? 

The first pledge given should be for Jesus, the Lamb of 
God, then temperance follows, every Christian grace, what 
things soever are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of 
good report. Why begin at the wrong end, put the cart 
before the horse ? 

Hereabouts lies the sad mistake of parents, teachers, and 
preachers, little folks and great folks. Let every parent 
obey the Lord in training the little folks on Bible truth, 
God-fearingly, all the way from babyhood, what need of 
temperance societies, moral-reform societies, peace societies. 

381 



FRESH AIR. 

WITHOUT IT WE PERISH. 

Everything that hatli life and breath requires a 
pure, fresh, healthful atmosphere. The animal and 
vegetable creation — the beasts of the field, the fowls 
of the air, the fishes of the sea, the insect tribes, plants 
and flowers, trees and shrubbery — all would wither, 
fade and die without this invigorating, purifying ele- 
ment. 

Above all, man needs it ; God saw this from the 
beginning, and filled the universe with it. It is free 
and abundant as the ocean of waters. And still we 
ignorantly and sinfully deprive ourselves of this pre- 
cious gift of Heaven ! Look at that minister in the 
sacred desk — his stupid, drowsy hearers on their seats. 
Do they know they are committing suicide? 

Impure air especially, in our crowded houses, is 
killing to soul and body ! 

A want of pure, fresh, air is the cause of more sleep- 
ing in church than any other thing. Every breath 
expired from the lungs is loaded with carbonic acid 
gas, which, when inhaled into the lungs, has a stupe- 
fying effect upon the system, and tends to make one 
drowsy. No air should ever be breathed twice. It 
is very injurious to health, to say nothing of the fil- 
thiness of the act. 

392 




FRUITS FOR FOOD. 

11 On the trees in yonder orchard, 
Peeping out amid the leaves, 
Hang a wreath of ruddy apples, 
Golden as the harvest sheaves ; 

They are round, and full, and glossy, 
With their cheeks of crimson gold ; 

They are juicy, ripe, and mellow, 
Half their sweetness is not told." 

" Fkuits are good, excellent," place them on your 
table, make them a special article of food at every 
meal. Fruits are not only good, relishable, but very 
nourishing and healthy. Dr. Hall says : — 

" There is scarcely an article of vegetable food more 
widely useful and more universally loved than the 
apple. Let every family lay in from two to ten or 
more barrels, and it will be to them the most econom- 

393 



394 , FORGIVENESS. 

ical investment in the whole range of culinaries. A 
raw apple is digested in an hour and a half; while 
boiled cabbage requires five hours. The most health- 
ful dessert which can be placed upon the table, is a 
baked apple. If taken freely at breakfast, with coarse 
bread and butter, without meat or flesh of any kind, 
it has an admirable effect on the general system, often 
removing constipation, correcting acidities, and cool- 
ing off febrile conditions more effectually than the 
most approved medicines. If families could be in- 
duced to substitute the apple, sound, ripe, and lus- 
cious, for the pies, cakes, candies, and other sweet- 
meats with which their children are too often indis- 
creetly stuffed, there would be a diminution in the 
sum total of doctors' bills in a single year, sufBcient 
to lay in a stock of this delicious fruit for a whole 
season's use. 



FORGIVENESS. 

How beautifully falls 
Prom human lips that blessed word Forgive ; 
Forgiveness — 'tis the attribute of God — 
The sound which openeth heaven ; renews again 
On earth lost Eden's faded bloom, and flings 
Hope's halcyon halo o'er the waste of life. 
Thrice happy he whose heart has been so schooled 
In the meek lessons of humanity 
That he can give it utterance ; it imparts 
Celestial grandeur to the human soul, 
And maketh man an angel. 




TAKE CARE, DON'T FALL, LITTLE FOLKS AND GREAT 

50LKS. 

11 Let him that thinketh lie standeth, take heed lest he fall" 

Look up, friends, keep looking up ; " lift your eyes to 
the hills, whence cometh your help." 

But what are these busy folks doing — gathering grapes ? 
Very well, grapes are good, wholesome, delicious, nutri- 
tious. Think, young friends, how many precious things 
God bestows continually 395 



WORK, WORK, WORK ! 

u We need only labor as hard as we can, 
For all that our bodies may need : 
Still doing our duty to God and to man. 
And we shall be happy indeed." 

"Work with your hands, your feet, your tongue, your 
pen; work out-doors and in-doors — work while the 
day lasts ; for the night cometh, in which no man can 
work. 

Work out your own salvation and the salvation of 
others, " for it is God that worketh in you, both to will 
and to do, of his good pleasure." 

Wake early, work early, work on and on! Work 
with your might day and night. 

44 Dream not, but work ! Be bold ! be brave ! 
Let not a coward spirit crave 
Escape from tasks allotted !" 

Learn to be working Christians. " Be ye doers of 
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own 
selves." When Christ found you he said, " Go, work 
in my vineyard." What were you hired for, if it was 
not to spread salvation? What blessed for? Oh, 
Christian friends, how little you live as though you 
were the servants of Christ ! How much idle time and 
idle talk you have ! This is not like a good servant. 
How many things you have to do for yourself! how 

396 



THE SWORD THAT CUTS : 397 

few for Christ and his people ! This is not like a ser- 
vant. 

Thousands breathe, move, and live — pass off the 
stage of life, are heard of no more. Why ? They do 
not a particle of good in the world ; no one was blessed 
by them as the instrument of their redemption. Not a 
word they spoke could be recalled, and so they per- 
ished ; their light went out in darkness, and they were 
not remembered more than the insects of yesterday. 
Will you thus live and die, O man, immortal ? Live for 
something ; do good ; and leave behind you a monu- 
ment of virtue, that the storms of time can never de- 
stroy. Write your name in kindness, and love, and 
mercy on the hearts of thousands you may come in 
contact with day by day, year by year. You will never 
be forgotten. No ! your name, your deeds will be as 
legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on 
the brow of the evening. 

" Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
Is our destined end and way ; 
But to act that each to-morrow 
Find it better than to day. 

" Let us, then, be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait." 



The desire of the slothful killeth him ; for his hands 
refuse to labor. Prov. xxi. 25. 



THE DISCIPLE ON THE WING; 

OR, 

FOLLOWING JESUS WHOLLY. 

Imitating Jesus is his special business. Not a day, 
an hour, a moment passes unimproved. His soul is 
on jive ! ■ for deeds merciful, gracious, benevolent. His 
motto is — 

" Let not a day pass without its line ; 

Not one without a godly deed — 
Not an hour unblessed by thought divine, 

On fast, accusing wing be freed : 
Be each swift-moving moment fraught 

With praise to God and good to man, 
As we in the best of books are taught — 

The word of Him whom time did plan." 

Christ, to him, is all and in all. "What's the result of 
this entire consecratedness, faithfulness in duty, contin- 
ual, living, out-spoken, practical witnessing for Jesus ? 

His own soul is kept constantly alive, on fire, joy- 
fully; he adds grace on grace, makes rapid strides 
heavenward. The light around him shines brighter 
and brighter. He is remarkably successful in winning 
souls to Christ. Sinners are awakened and converted 
under his labors ; saints are edified, built up, strength- 
ened, purified, established ; the feeble-minded are com- 
forted, the weak supported. He feels a deep sympathy 
for the poor and oppressed, and is ever ready to " re- 

398 



THE FlftE THAT BURNS. 399 

member those in bonds as bound with them." His 
own peace flows like a river. How true the sentiment, 
" He that watereth shall himself be watered I" 

" Some angel guide my pen, while I draw 
What nothing else than angel can exceed — 
A man on earth devoted to the skies I" 

" Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he 
shall have more abundance ; but from him that hath 
not, shall be taken away even that he hath." 

It is the diligent soul that is made fat ; there is no 
promise of good to the unfaithful, the slothful, the fear- 
ful, doubting, and unbelieving. " He that endureth to 
the end shall be saved." 

Beloved reader, are you thus imitating Jesus — " go- 
ing about doing good," mounting up as on eagle's wings, 
in faith, hope, and love ? Has God, in very deed, puri- 
fied your soul by faith through the Spirit, given you 
liberty, holy triumph, filled you with joy unspeakable ? 
"Watch unto prayer, go forward, labor for God, be dili- 
gent, persevering. Speak for Jesus; open your lips 
wide in testimony ; witness definitely to the purifying 
efficacy of his blood to cleanse from all sin ; face the 
enemy ; stem the current ; " Be strong in the Lord, 
and in the power of his might." 

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able 
to stand ; stand with your loins girt about with truth, 
having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your 
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; 



"MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS." 

Canticles ii. 16. 

Yes, He is mine ! and nought of earthly things, 
Not all the charms of pleasure, wealth, or power, 

The fame of heroes, or the pomp of kings, 
Could tempt me to forego his love an hour. 

Go, worthless world, I cry, with all that's thine ! 
Go ! I my Saviour's am, and He is mine. 

The good I have is from His store supplied : 
The ill is only what he deems the best ; 

He for my Friend, I'm rich with nought beside ; 
And poor without Him, though of all possess'd.. 

Changes may come — I take, or I resign — 
Content while I am His, while He is mine. 

Whate'er may change, in Him no change is seen — 
A glorious Sun that wanes not, nor declines : 

Above the clouds and storms He walks serene, 
And sweetly on His people's darkness shines, 

All may depart — I fret not, nor repine, 

While I my Saviour's am, while He is mine. 

While here, alas ! I know but half His love, 
But half discern Him, and but half adore ; 

But when I meet Him in the realms above, 
I hope to love him better, praise Him more ; 

And feel, and tell, amid the choir divine, 
How fully I am His, and He is mine ! 

400 



THE TRUE REFORMER. 

Who is he? What is he? 

1. He takes scriptural ground for his faith and 
practice ; receives the Bible as a whole, comparing 
Scripture with Scripture. He believes that all Scrip- 
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc 
tion in righteousness, that the man of God may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 

Reforms based or attempted on any other founda- 
tion aside from Christ, the Bible — God's own book — 
will sooner or later come to naught. "Every plant 
which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be 
rooted up." 

2. He has the spirit of Christ. " If any man have 
not the spirit of Christ he is none of his." 

3. He has holy boldness, great moral courage. 

4. He is willing to make great sacrifices — take the 
spoiling of his goods joyfully ; like Paul, not count- 
ing his life dear. "He that saveth his life shall lose it." 

5. He is indefatigable in his efforts in the midst of 
the greatest obstacles and oppositions. 

6. He has strong faith in God, in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

7. His hope of success and final triumph is in God. 

8. He does all to glorify God. 

401 



REFORMERS REFORMED. 

" Be Christ my pattern and my guide, 
His image may I bear ; 
Oh, may I tread His holy steps, 
His joy and glory share I" 

Are you a minister of Christ ? Not unless you are a 
reformer. Christ was a reformer ; so were Paul, Peter, 
James, and John, the holy prophets, one and all. The 
special mission of Jesus, the Lamb of God, to this 
world was to reform it — to destroy Satan's kingdom. 
" For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that 
he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John, iii. 8. 
No one is a true Gospel minister except he be a true 
Bible reformer, striving against all sin, crying aloud, 
sparing not. No Church is a true Church of Christ, un- 
less it is Bible reformatory — a reprover of all sin, a 
lighthouse, " a city set on a hill," " the salt of the 
earth." 

" Stand firm ! Oh, 'tis a high command, 

From which no Christian man should turn — 

If Satan presses hand to hand, 
A holy fire within should burn ; 

'Twill shield the champions of the Lord, 

Contending for His purest word." 



"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver." Prov. xxv. 11. 

402 



THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 

u He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" — Matt. iii. 13. 

" Oh for the living flame, 

From His own altar brought, 
To touch our lips, our souls inspire, 
And wing to heaven our thought." 

What the effects of this fire from heaven anciently ? 
What did it do for the apostles and early disciples, 
when it was poured out on the day of Pentecost ? 

1. It opened their understanding to understand the 
Scriptures in a new light, to behold wondrous things 
out of the law and Gospel. 

2. It strengthened and invigorated their memories, 
brought home vividly and forcibly to their recollection 
"things new and old." Passages from the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures came before the mind's eye with re- 
newed and special clearness and power. This is evi- 
dent from the many quotations of Stephen, Peter, Paul, 
James, and John, in their appeals to the people after 
they had this holy unction, this new spiritual impulse — 
the tongue of fire. 

3. The Holy Spirit now took of the things of Christ 
and showed them unto them. They saw the way of sal- 
vation through the mediation of Christ, His sufferings, 
deati n . resurrection, and intercession, and that there 
was "none other name given under heaven, among 
men, whereby we must be saved." Acts, iv. 12. 

403 



STIFF NECKS AND STRAIT JACKETS. 

The Lord passes them by unblessed ! How can he 
do otherwise f How can he bless them ? How can 
salvation come where sectarian walls remain, like pil- 
lars of brass, immovable ? where the different evan- 
gelical sects stand aloof from each other, refuse to 
unite in saving souls ! This absence of God's Spirit 
is remarkable in the visitations of God's special mercy. 
Wherever God's people have laid aside all party spirit, 
all sectarian biases, and united honestly and heartily 
in promoting a general revival, there God has met 
them, poured out His Spirit overflowingly ! Conse- 
quently nearly every soul, in some villages, has bowed 
humbly to the Prince of Peace ! 

"While in other places, where the brazen walls of 
sectarianism remain adamantinely, there the Spirit 
has been measurably withheld. 

" Is it for sect or creed to fight, 
To call our zeal the rule of right, 
When what we wish is, at the best, 
To see our church excel the rest." 

How clearly and forcibly has God manifested His 
displeasure at these divisions and subdivisions — this 
selfishness of the sect ! Thousands on thousar.s of 
souls perish annually, go down to the pit, that might 
be saved everlastingly, were it not for this wicked 
abomination. And who is responsible for these souls 

404 



STIFF NECKS AND STRAIT JACKETS. 405 

lost, forever lost ? Whose skirts arc stained with 

blood ! Whose ? " Now I beseech you, brethren, 

by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all 

speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions 

among you." 

" Let party names no more 

The Christian world o'erspread ; 
Gentile and Jew, and bond and free,- 
Are one in Christ their head." 

lieader, are you in this strait jacket ? with a stiff 
neck ? Is it pleasant, well pleasing to your heavenly 
Father to remain thus in a nutshell religion ; a pent 
up, conservative, sectarian atmosphere ? 

John Wesley, the celebrated founder of Methodism, 
in his preface to Notes on the New Testament, uses 
the following prayer, which deserves the serious and 
candid consideration of every admirer of that distin- 
guished man, and servant of God. 

" Would to God that all the party names and tm- 
scriptural phrases said forms which have divided the 
Christian world were forgotten ; and that we might 
all agree io sit down together as humble, loving disci- 
ples at the feet of our common Master, to hear His 
word y imbibe His Spirit, and to transcribe His life 
in our own." 

Such was the language of that great and good man 
at an age or time of life when his thoughts had ma- 
tured and ripened into fixed principles ; and w r hen 
experience had taught him the evil of " party 'names" 



HAS THE OFFENCE OF THE CROSS CEASED? 

PERSECUTION — WHAT IS IT? 

" Are there no foes for me to face ? 
Must I not stem the flood?" 

What is persecution? To be scourged in syna- 
gogues, brought before governors and kings for Christ's 
sake? 

Is it to be stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the 
sword, to wander about in sheepskins and goatskins, 
being destitute, afflicted, tormented ? Is it to be cast 
into the lions' den, or the fiery furnace heated seven 
times hotter than is wont ? This, doubtless, is perse- 
cution for righteousness' sake ; but is this all ? Is not 
opposition to God's truth in every form, persecution ? 
to vex, afflict, harass with injustice, false accusation ? 
to inflict pain from hatred or malignity ? What perse- 
cution more to be dreaded than a slanderous tongue, 
malice prepense — a tongue set on fire of hell — misrep- 
resentation, silent, satanic innuendoes to destroy repu- 
tation and usefulness, hinder the cause of truth and 
salvation? Doubtless the vexatious hindrances of 
Paul among false prophets and false brethren, the time- 
servers and popularity-seekers of his age, their viru- 
lent opposition to his reformatory steps, vfere more 
aggravating and soul-trying than to suffer shipwreck, 
be stoned, beaten with rods, or to " receive forty stripes 
save one." 

406 



FEAR THE CONSEQUENCES? 

Consequences, indeed ! "What have you to do with 
consequences, friend ? Go forward ; do your duty in 
the fear and wisdom of God, and let consequences take 
care of themselves, or rather let God take care of them. 
God's true and faithful servants have nothing to do 
with consequences in the path of duty, in their public 
or private ministrations, in rebuking sin, in standing 
boldly for Jesus. This fearing consequences is the 
ruin of the Church, our institutions of benevolence, our 
nation! It is ruin, politically and religiously — one 
special cause of all the temporizing, the doctrine of 
expediency, compromising with sin and Satan, wicked 
men and devils ! This fearing consequences and not 
obeying God has brought our nation to what she is — on 
the verge of ruin, desolation, and damnation ; brought 
leanness and spiritual death into the Church, the edi- 
torship, the souls of millions ! 

It is wicked, God dishonoring unbelief, bowing the 
knee to public opinion. It is a man-fearing, time- 
serving spirit, the hateful, pharisaical, damning sin, 
which God hates and which He will blow upon. " Yea, 
they shall not be planted ; yea, they shall not be sown ; 
yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth ; and 
He shall also blow upon them and they shall wither, 
and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble." 
Isa, xl. 24. 

407 



408 



THE FIBE THAT BURNS. 



Eeader, how is it with you ? Are you obeying God — 
taking Him at His word, going forward boldly in de- 
claring God's full counsel, leaving the consequences 
with Him who says, " I will never leave thee nor for- 
sake thee?" 

Suppose Elijah had feared consequences when he 
was commanded to meet the enraged and wicked Ahab 
— look him in the face ? "What if Daniel had looked at 
consequences when the lions' den was opened wide to 
receive him? the three men cast into the fiery furnace 
heated seven "times hotter than was wont?" 

" Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul ; but rather fear Him who is able to de- 
stroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. x. 28. 



DRESS. 
The wearing of gay or costly apparel naturally tends 
to breed and increase vanity. By vanity I mean the 
love and desire of being admired and praised. Every 
one of you that is fond of dress has a witness of this in 
your own bosom. Whether you will confess this before 
man or not, you are convicted of it before God. You 
know in your hearts, it is with a view to be admired 
that you thus 'adorn yourselves ; and that you would 
not be at the pains were none to see you but God and 
His holy angels. Now the more you indulge this fool- 
ish design the more it grows upon you. Oh, stop ! Aim 
at pleasing God alone, and all these ornaments will drop. 



DIE?— WHEN? WHERE? HOW? 

Die before your time, before you have finished the 
work assigned you — what God has for you to do? 
Such a thing never was, never will be. Kill you? who? 
wicked men? devils — hosts on hosts? The Lord is 
around about his people, as the mountains round about 
Jerusalem. " The angel of the Lord encampeth round 
about them that fear him, and delivereth them." You 
may suffer for righteousness, be reviled, persecuted, 
scourged in the synagogues : what righteous man living 
godly in Christ Jesus hath not ? Is the disciple above 
his master, or the servant his lord ? Die, before you 
have fought the good fight — finished your course ? Did 
the holy prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the three 
men in the fiery furnace — did Paul die before his time 
— Peter, James, John, Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Bun- 
yan, John Brown the martyr ? 

Not a sparrow falleth without God's notice. " The 
very hairs of your head are all numbered." 

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" 

Bead the 27th Psalm, also the 46th and 91st. Fear 
not, therefore, ye faithful ones, ye servants of the Most 
High, " who cry aloud and spare not." " There is noth- 
ing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that 
shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that 
speak ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear, that 
preach ye upon the house-tops." 

409 



ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS. 

niNTS TO GAUDY FEMALES. 

" A goldfinch there I saw, with gaudy pride 
Of painted plumes." 

One of the most serious evils that exist in society at 
the present time, and one that has a great tendency to 
bring about financial crises, bankruptcies, defalcations, 
mercantile dishonor, and a withdrawal of that con- 
fidence, without which the wheels of commerce are 
clogged, and the course of trade impeded, is the insane 
passion for dress and gaudy ornaments which is mani- 
fested by a class of American ladies, and is fostered by 
their husbands and fathers. The evil has come to be of 
such magnitude, that the press here and there is lifting 
up its voice against it. May it be potential in arrest- 
ing the attention of ladies, and lead them to a thorough 
reform — a reform which may save their husbands and 
fathers from bankruptcy, and haply from guilt ; which 
may be made by them without sacrifice ; which w T ill 
add to their attractions by taking from their meretri- 
cious ornaments, and which will promote their peace 
of mind. 

The sad history of mercantile disaster and of dishon- 
esty in high places, which the history of the past few 
years has disclosed, is full of warning, if it is not also 
of reproach, to those ladies who have lived beyond the 
most ample means, to gratify a vanity which is un- 

dio 



THE SWORD THAT CUTS: 411 

worthy of them. Ladies make a great mistake when 
they, suppose they add to their charms by vieing with 
the plumage of the gaudiest bird in their apparel. 

4 ' To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
To throw a perfume on the violet, 
To smooth the ice, or add another hue 
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light 
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, 
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." 

But these are no more wasteful or ridiculous than 
for women to pile the price of a year's income upon 
their backs. We once knew a man, who called upon us, 
his countenance beaming with pleasure, to exhibit a 
wonderful invention of his own. He produced a 
bouquet of rare and beautiful flowers, which he had 
liberally spangled with gold and silver leaf. To the 
lover of nature and the beauties of the garden nothing 
could be more repulsive. "We look upon a superfluity 
of dress and ornament on a woman with much the 
same feeling. " Loveliness needs not the foreign aid 
of ornament, but is, when unadorned, adorned the 

most." 

" Modesty, like diamonds, shines most fair, 
More worth than pearls or rubies are, 
More rich than gold or silver coin — 
Oh may it always on us shine !" 



"A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and 
casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof." 
Prov. xxi. 22. 



AN AGE OF LIARS, OR A LYING AGE. 

" Dare to be true ; nothing can need a lie." ( 

" Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man 
truth with his neighbor." Eph. iv. 25. 

Cheating and lying, lying and cheating. It is cheat- 
ing here, cheating there ; it is lying here, lying there. 

" A little theft, a small deceit, 
Too often leads to more." 

" He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful 
also in much ; and he that is unjust in the least, is un- 
just also in much." 

Lies are of various kinds, of various degrees of ag- 
gravation. There are black lies and white lies, lies of 
vanity, pride, ambition, flattery, convenience, interest, 
fear, wantonness, cruelty; lies of first, second, and 
third rate malignity. There are also passive or prac- 
tical lies — lies acted out. Point your finger in a wrong 
direction to an inquiring traveller — you give him the 
lie. 

Again, some are habitual liars — lie at nearly every 
breath ; like the common swearer — he swears, and knows 
it not. 

" A righteous man hateth lying ; but a wicked man 
is loathsome, and cometh to shame." Prov. xiii. 15. 

" Lying is my trade," said an auctioneer ; " I live by 
falsehood and deception, it is my meat and drink ; 
when I speak a lie, I speak of my own." 

412 



LOTTERIES, THE WORK OF SATAN. 

" Doing evil, that good may come." 

Lotteries tend fearfully to demoralize society, by 
engendering a gambling spirit in the young and in all % 
classes, which does not stop here, but draws them into 
the gaming-houses and all the haunts of dissipation. 

And while some good men have been engaged in 
these undertakings, yet too often designing men have 
taken advantage of the credulity of the people to swin- 
dle them. 

The only safe plan is to always do right, and then 
we will not have to sorrow over the results of our ex- 
ample. Not only are these lotteries now encouraged 
in many quarters, but actually defended as right. But 
let any man examine the motives which prompt him to 
buy a ticket in a lottery scheme, and he will find it a 
desire to obtain something for ivhich lie gives no equivalent. 
"Wherein does this differ from the motive that controls 
the thief? Both are a breach, in the sight of God, of 
the eighth commandment, and we trust that Christian 
men, at least, will discourage all such schemes, what- 
ever may be the pretence on which they ask your 
favor. 

No one can deny that the mental passion for gam- 
bling is as terrible and as destructive as the physical 
appetite for strong drink ; and they are, to a great ex- 
tent, concomitant or supplementary, one of the other. 

413 



THE DEVIL A CTIEAT ! 

Awake, and see each living thing 
Pursue its course in haste ; 
The birds their gathered morsel bring, 
And as they labor gladly sing, 

We have no time to waste." 



Friends, be honest, speak truth • is it not a fact, 
you have no heart's desire to read good things, holy 
things — things that make for your peace, that edify, 
purify, and sanctify ! — no relish for things heavenly 
and divine ? Therefore by way of apology you tell 
us you have " no time to read !" Were your souls 
alive to God, hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
ness, would you not find time to read, meditate, and 
pray ? " Where there is a will, there is a way." 
" Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak- 
eth." 

" Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters." — Wherefore do ye spend money for that 
which satisfieth not : hearken diligently unto me, 
and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul de- 
light itself in fatness." Isa. lv. 2. 

" 'Tis not the want of time, nor means, nor good intent, 
That has these millions to perdition sent ; 
But 'tis the Siren who, his victims to betray, 
Persuades with honeyed words, repentance to delay. 

Delay's the Siren's name, whose fascinating song 
Lures and deceives the maddened swelling throng. 
Delay's the fatal cause that bars the heavenly gates, 
Arid tortures with an agony which ne'er abates," 
411 



DEVIL'S DENS! GAMBLING HELLS! 

" He that sowctli iniquity shall reap vanity ; and the 
rod of his anger shall fail." Prov. xxii. 8. Reader, 
you saw that gambling hell in Saratoga, and were hor- 
rified as you gazed upon it — stood aghast ! And did 
you call to mind the origination of this work of dark- 
ness, death, and damnation ? Did you think for a mo- 
ment that you were the guilty one that set this devilish 
machinery in motion ? that you were one of the chief 
in truments in making these devil's dens — of kindling 
these fires that burn to the lowest hell ? "Thou art the 
man ;" and God holds you responsible for these souls, 
lost eternally through your instrumentality. We lay 
the sin at your door, and so does God. " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die." 

" Who sows to the winds, the whirlwind reaps." 

You are the guilty one that commends games of 
chance, worldly, sinful amusements ; amusements that 
kill time, dissipate thought, mind, and soul, turn away 
the heart from God, from Christ the ever-blessed ! 
What is time ? Ask death-beds. Ask that queen in her 
last moments, who cried, " Millions, millions ! for an 
hour, an inch of time !" Time — what is it ? 

" I asked a dying sinner, ere the stroke 
Of ruthless death life's golden bowl had broke, 
I asked him, What is time ? * Time/ he replied — 
I've lost it — ah. the treasure !' and he died ! 
415 



SOCIAL PARTIES. 

We learn that ministers and church officers in some 
places, are encouraging social or neighborhood parties 
— recommending the members of their charge to meet 
occasionally, and spend an evening in friendly chit- 
chat, have a supper, perhaps wind up with an inno- 
cent game of some kind, to promote a more general 
sociability and friendly intercourse. 

Sociability is a good thing — we admire it, but we 
would respectfully ask, if there is not a better and 
more scriptural way of promoting social and friendly 
feeling, among the people ? Why not appoint a 
weekly meeting in every church, on holiness, entire 
sanctifieation, the higher Christian life. We know 
of no better or surer way to promote sociability, 
friendship, love, and Christian union. Nothing binds 
God's people so closely and firmly in the bonds of 
afiection and love, as the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
— the tongue of fire. This spirit, too, will banish all 
trifling, levity, foolish talking, and jesting so common 
at many of these social parties. 

It will also heal all divisions, backslidings, heart- 
burnings, roots of bitterness, all envyings and evil- 
speakings. Besides it will qualify for active service, 
spiritual labor, holy zeal, self-sacrifice in the cause of 
God, in the salvation of souls. 

416 



GOLDEN RULE VIOLATIONS. 

" This golden lesson, short and plain, 
Gives not the mind or memory pain, 
And every conscience must approve 
This universal law of love." 

Every deviation from the spirit of true benevolence, 
every selfish motive and action, is a violation of the 
golden precept. For all the law is fulfilled in one 
word : " Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thyself T But 
, selfishness assumes a thousand different forms. "We 
specify a few of the most glaring : 

1. Borrowing money, or any article, without return- 
ing it at the specified time. " Owe no man anything, 
but to love one another." 

2. Omitting to pay postage when writing on one's 
own business. 

3. Not giving due notice to continue or discontinue 
a periodical, at or before the time of the expiration of 
the subscription year. How often are papers returned 
— written " Stop," on the margin — after having received 
several numbers on a new year, and not a farthing is 
received by the editor for these extra numbers ! 

This is not only a violation of the golden rule, but 
of the civil law, the law of periodicals : 

" Subscribers who do not give express notice to the 
contrary, are considered as wishing to continue their 
subscription." 

417 ■ 




JEWELS OF GOLD, JEWELS OF SILVER. 

1. Jewel signifies a precious and costly ornament. 
Gen. xxiv. 53. 

2. God's children are compared to jewels. " And 
they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day 
when I make up my jewels." 3Ial. ii. 17. 

3. Wisdom or knowledge is compared to a jewel. 
" The lips of knowledge are a precious jewel." " If thou 
seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid 
treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the 
Lord, and find the knowledge of God." Prov. ii. 5. 
" She is more precious than rubies : and all the things 
thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her." 
Prov. iii. 15. 

Finally, the soul is a jewel of infinite value. Sinner, 
is this jewel of thine safe ? There are robbers that lie 
in wait for thy soul constantly, and if their utmost 
spite can keep thee out of heaven, thou shalt never 
come there. 

418 




NOVEMBER, 

" The leaves are fading and falling, 
The winds are rough and wild, 
The birds have ceased their calling ; 
But let me tell you, dear child, 

" Though day by day, as it closes, 
Doth darker and colder grow, 
The roots of the bright red roses 
Will keep alive in the snow. 



" And when the winter is over, 

The boughs will get new leaves, 
The quail come back to the clover, 
And the swallow back to the eaves. 

419 



420 NOVEMBER. 

u The robin will wear on his bosom 
A vest that is bright and new, 
And the loveliest wayside blossom 
Will shine with the sun and dew. 

11 The leaves to-day are whirling, 
The brooks are dry and dumb ; 
But let me tell you, sweet darling, 
The spring will be sure to come. 

" There must be rough, cold weather 
And winds and rains so wild ; 
Not all good things together 
Come to us here, dear child." 

" So, when some dear joy loses 
Its beauteous summer glow, 
Think how the roots of the roses 
Are kept alive in the snow." 



WORK TO DAY. 



"Life's hours are short and few, 
As transitory as the morning dew : 

'Tis meet that they should be 
Well spent ; for oh ! if wasted, they but bring 
A present cloy, and, for their closing time, 
Treasure remorse, the spirit's deathless sting." 



EXAMPLE KILLS, EXAMPLE CURES. 

11 Christian ! walk carefully — danger is near, 
"Work out the journey with trembling and fear; 
Snares from without, and temptation within 
Seek to entice thee again into sin." 

TIJE LITTLE BOY AND HIS MOTHER. 

A word to the wise is sufficient. " If I were only- 
old enough, I would smoke cigars, mamma," said a 
boy of six summers, as he stood looking out of the 
window. 

" O, no, my son, smoking is not a nice, cleanly 
habit. It is injurious to the health, leads people into 
bad company. Besides, it wastes a great deal of 
money that might feed and clothe poor, little, 
wretched children, or give the Bible to those who have 
never heard any thing about Jesus, our Saviour. 
Don't you see that such a useless, wasteful habit 
would be very wrong, my dear boy ?" 

" Yes, mamma, I do think of these things, but 
papa teaches us to smoke, and he is good." 

" Papa teaches you ! He would not teach you a 
bad habit for the world ! What makes you say so ?" 

" He smokes himself, mamma !" 

Christian father, is the fine, promising boy, growing 
up by your side, upon whom you look with gratitude 
and joy, to be impressively taught by your silent ex- 
ample, to begin a career of self-indulgence, which 

421 



422 

will lead him by slow but sure steps, to idle loung- 
ing, sinful expenditures, evil company, and perhaps to 
profanity, intemperance, and the worst of vices ? O 
stop, stop daily, when you are nearest to God in your 
closet, and consider well your ways, consider them 
especially in reference to your child. Think how 
potent is the influence of your example, even in little 
tilings, in this forming period of his character, and 
how lasting is its power. A wrong step now — a little 
step into the path of doubtful self-indulgence, and out 
of the path of unquestionable moral rectitude, your 
child will be quick to see, and the sight may be a 
death-blow to pure, unyielding moral principle in his 
heart forever ! O Christian parent, you w r ould not, 
as you fear God, for any present pleasure, peril the 
temporal and eternal future of your confiding child. 



Train your children in charity. Begin young. As 
soon as they can speak, they can learn the grace of 
giving pity, prayers, and money to the destitute and 
oppressed. Easier then than later. When the ten- 
derness of childhood and youth has been supplanted 
by the more earnest and sterner business of active life, 
it w r ill be much harder to touch the heart with tales 
of sorrow, and elicit sympathy in its behalf. 




HIS FINGERS ARE COLD, AIN'T THEY? TERRIBLE! 

Poor boy without mittens, don't you pity him, little 
folks ? Winter ? Certainly it is. See the snowflakes 
falling. 

SNOW, EMBLEM OF PURITY. 

" There is something sopure in the falling snow, 

As it comes on its wings so light, 
And mantles the valleys and plains below 

In a robe of spotless white ; 
That I love to gaze thro' the misty air, 

Where the broad flakes are at play, 
And offer a silent, earnest prayer, 

That my heart was as pure as they ; 
That every thought and wish might be 
The emblem of such purity." 

423 



LITTLE SERMONS. 

u Who hath despised the day of small thing* I* 

" Why do we speak of ' a little thing,' 
And ' trifles light as air ?' 
Can aught be trifle which helps to bring 
One moment's joy or care ?" 

Little Sermons. — Preach them ? do you ? Every 
body should preach little sermons and great sermons, 
so long as one sin or one sinner exists. Preaching 
should be constant, — " in season and out of season." 
Line upon line should be given, precept on precept — 
here a little and there a little. 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, and 
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak - 
eth. "Wherever, in the steamboat, rail-car, in the 
house, by the wayside, an opportunity offers, the faith- 
ful servant of the Lord opens his lips in mercy to 
two, three, six, eight, ten, more or less. On every 
suitable occasion he is ever ready to drop a kind word 
of rebuke, exhortation, and salvation. 

Every word of life, in the form of reproof, correc- 
tion, or instruction, from the heart to the heart ; — 
every act of true benevolence or mercy is a little ser- 
mon. Who then may not preach, rising up, lying 
down, going out, coming in, — always, everywhere ? 
And these little sermons, scattered up and down, are 
like the dew of heaven. Now, beloved reader, sup- 

424 



LITTLE SERMONS. 425 

posing every one naming the* name of Christ were 
thus faithful in delivering little sermons, in opening 
his- lips for Jesus, pointing sinnersto the lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world ; reproving, 
rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffering and doc- 
trine — rising up early ? How long would it be ere 
the earth blossomed as the rose ? 

Some ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, two hundred 
or more such little sermons w r ould be preached daily 
by every true follower of Jesus ! Glorious ! 

" What wants the age ? Heart-earnest men 

To spread the truth, the truth defend ; 
Such on the earth we need again 

As God in ancient times did send ; 
Men reckless of wealth or fame, 

Of ignominy, scorn, or shame, 
The stake, the faggot, or the flame ; 

Their only object God ; and truth their only aim." 



" Ma:mt sermons, ingenious to their kind, may be 
compared to a letter put in the post-office without a di- 
rection. It is addressed to nobody, it is owned by no- 
body, and if a hundred people were to read it, not one 
of them would think himself concerned in the contents. 
Such a sermon, whatever excellencies it may have, 
lacks the chief requisite of a sermon. It is like a sword 
which has a polished blade, a jeweled hilt, and a gor- 
geous scabbard, but yet will not cut. Truth, properly 
presented, has an edge, it pierces to the dividing asun- 
der of soul and spirit, it is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart." 




HERE THEY ARE, HUDDLETY-HUDDLE, LITTLE FOLKS 
AND BIG FOLKS, 

All mixed up, grandpa, grandma, little babies, and all. 
Beautiful scene, ain't it, little folks? Cold? Cold as 
Freezeland ! 

11 Cold the wind is blowing, 
Fast has it been snowing ! 
The lambs are in the shed, 

Well-housed and fed." 

426 



DECEMBER. 427 

Old December lias come round again with his white 
locks. He is pretty cold, almost freezing. His very breath 
has Jack Frost in it. But how cheerful he makes things. 
The sleigh-bells are ringing ; sleds are running. He brings 
merry Christmas ; and what heaps of presents for She 
children ! Nor does he forget little Bare Toes and Ragged 
Knees. He nips them, to be sure ; but only to make us 
remember to look in our drawers and find socks and flan- 
nels to keep them warm. Do not forget the poor. That 
is what December whispers through the keyhole, breathes 
on the window-pane, and howls round the house. 

It says, "Make home happy." Brothers and sisters 
round the same fireside, get out your nice books, and see 
that you spend the winter evenings in a way to make each 
one happier and better. 

No matter how many little folks and great folks, fathers 
and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers in a family, 
in summer or winter, and babies also, heaps on heaps, if so 
be all is clock-work, peace, joy, salvation ; if so be all the 
little ones are trained for Jesus. The more in number the 
better, the happier, the more joyful. 

Every additional new-comer to the common stock adds 
renewed joyfulness and thanksgivings, just as heaven above 
is made more joyful by the increased numbers washed 
clean, made white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Oh, what blessed encouragement have parents for obey- 
ing God in household duty. Remember, Christian parent, 
it is not enough to pray for, or even with your children, if 
you do not also instruct them ; and it will be in vain to im 
struct them, if your example contradicts your teaching ; 
and in vain will be the prayer, example, and instruction, 
if, like Eli, when your children do wrong you restrain 
them not. 




December has not left its yet, little readers. You see — 

Cold winter is here, and all nature looks drear, 

The streamlets in ice-fetters bound ; 
The leaves on the trees are all yellow and sere, 

And the snow-mantle covers the ground : 
The tempest now darkens the face of the skies, 

And the sharp, whistling storm-winds with terror arise. 

How cheerless and sad is the home of the poor, 
When the storm rages mournfully round ! 

When the northern wind blows, how hard to endure 
The privations which ever are found 

In the home of the needy, where poverty dwells, 

And the breast fill'd with anguish, painfully swells! 

428 



DECEMBER. 429 

Oh ! ye. who glide on with prosperity's tide, 

And numberless blessings possess, — 
Surrounded with comforts on every side, 

And hunger and want ne'er depress, — 
Pause and think of the poor, whose hopes have all fled, 
Their hearts chill'd and wither'd, and starving for bread. 

Go visit their homes ; go witness their grief, 

And listen to misery's plea ; — 
Beholding them desolate, offer relief 

Of the bounties which Heaven gives thee : 
Provide for their children, whose shivering forms 
Plainly tell how they suffer 'neath winter's bleak storms. 

Bestow then your sympathy, kindness, and prayers, 
On those whom misfortune has crossed ; — 

Oh ! ease their afflictions, and soothe their dark cares, 
Poor wanderers o'er life's billows toss'd ; 

And God will reward you with mercies most sure, 

For " blessed is he that remembereth the poor." 



THE FALLING SNOW. 

There's something so rude in the falling snow 

As it drifts through the mountain air, 
And scatters its broad flakes to and fro, 

In the face of the old and fair ; 
And then, with a careless dance it flies 

O'er the graves of dear ones in the vale, 
And puts out the violets' tender eyes 

With its frigid tones and dismal wail : 
Oh ! lightly rest on the new-made sod, 
Where we gave our dear ones back to God. 



WINTER EYENINGS AT HOME. 

" The light of Homo! how bright it beams 
When evening shades around us fall ; 
And from the lattice far it gleams, 

To love and rest and comfort call ; 
When tired with the toils of day, 

The strife of glory, gold and fame, 
How sweet to seek the quiet way, 
Where loving lips will lisp our name 

Around the light at Home." 

Friends, how do you spend the long winter even- 
ings? In Wisdom's ways? in reading, meditating, 
treasuring up useful knowledge, scientific, historical, 
scriptural? We may calculate on three hours at. 
least, between the closing of out-door work till early 
bedtime. How shall we spend these three precious 
hours ? in what way ? where shall we go ? what shall 
we. do? The bright fire in the fireplace, grate, open 
stove, gives an air of cheerfulness and comfort to the 
family sitting-room. Are you fatigued with the labors 
of the day ? Is not this the place of all others to 
rest weary limbs or brain ? Do the cares of busi- 
ness press heavily upon you? Where may you 
throw them off if not here? where seek sympathy 
and counsel ? Would you find relaxation and im- 
provement, at the same time, in familiar conver- 
sation ? What is more charming or more improving, 
to mind or heart, than the right kind of home- 
talk ? 

430 



FORGIVE AND FORGET. 

HINTS TO LITTLE FOLKS AND GREAT FOLKS. 

" Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Luke, vi. 37. 
"How oft? Until seventy times seven." Matt, xviii. 
21. (See also Matt, vi. 12, 15 ; Mark, xi. 25, 26, etc.) 

" Forgive ! 'Tis Heaven's divine command, 
The measure of its grace : 
Said Jesus, ' When ye praying stand 

Within the holy place, 
Bring no resentments in your hand, 
No frowns upon your face.' " 

Friends, do you forgive your enemies, love them, 
pray for them ? 

" Though oft repeated — seven times seven, 

In guilt's. most hateful forms, 
i Forgive as thou wouldst be forgiven ;' 

Dost thou accept the terms?" 

We hear people say sometimes that they forgive, but 
Will not forget. What does that mean ? Is there any 
real forgiveness in it ? 

" * We forgive the offence, but we cannot forget ;' 
How often that language we've heard, 
And felt that forgive in such company set, 
Was a vain and meaningless word." 

We must from the heart forgive. When we feel kind- 
ly, and have a tender love for the erring, we forgive, 
and not till then. 

431 



TELLING JESUS. 

" They took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesu». n 

" Go and tell Jesus when thy heart is full 
Of keen and bitter agony and woe ; 
"When the dear, precious form of one beloved 
Is parted from thee ; in the grave laid low ; 
Go and tell Jesus — He will soothe thy grief — 
To thy poor suffering spirit bring relief." 

Are you bereaved? have you lost a husband, a 
wife, a father, a mother, a son, or a daughter, one 
dear as your own life ? " Go and tell Jesus." He 
will bind up the broken heart, weep with you as he 
did with Martha and Mary at the grave of Lazarus. 

Are you troubled on every side, tempest-tossed ? 
Tell Jesus all about it : he will say to the raging bil- 
lows, " Peace, be still," and there will be a great 
calm. 

11 When the clouds are gathering o'er thee, 
And the path looks dark before thee ; 
"When thy feet are worn and weary, 
And thy way seems long and dreary 
Go to Jesus." 

Are you tempted to pride, vainglorying, to think 
more highly of yourself than you ought ? Take this 
serpent of serpents to Jesus, nail it to his cross. " I 
am the Lord : that is my name : And my glory will 
I not give to another, neither my praise to graven 
images." Isa. xlii. 8. " Let him that glorieth, glory 
in the Lord." 

432 




WHO ARE THESE, PICTURED IN THIS ENGRAVING ? 



Can you tell, little folks ? Old Simeon and the holy 
child Jesus in his arms ? Most assuredly. The Lord 
promised this good old saint that he should not see death 
till he had seen the Lord's Christ. " Then took he him up 
in his arms and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Luke, ii. 28, 29. 
Do you not think good old Simeon had a great deal to say 
about Jesus long before this blessed interview ? And 
should not we talk about Jesus a great deal, since he has 
died for us and risen for our justification? "Unto you, 
therefore, who believe, he is precious." 1 Pet. ii. 7. 

If we take no delight in talking about Jesus now, how 
would it be in heaven ? We hear some little folks and 
great folks tell what a blessed, happy place heaven is. But 
w T hat makes heaven — Jesus ? Nothing short. NTo Jesus, 
no heaven ; and this heaven begins with Jesus here. 

Why is it, little readers, your souls are not on fire, blaa- 

433 



434 WHO ARE THESE, PICTURED IN THIS ENGRAVING ? 

ing out at the mere name of Jesus, that causes all heaven 
to ring hallelujahs, and will continue to ring thus as eter- 
nity rolls on ? 

11 No mortal can with him compare 
Among the sons of men ; 
Fairer is he than all the fair 
That fill the heavenly train.'" 

" If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin : 
but the spirit is life because of righteousness." 

" Oh, not in vain, when oft we meet 

The record of his love 
To search, does not our Jesus greet, 

And bless us from above ? 
They shall be his, when in that day 

His jewels he shall make, 
Who here may toil life's little way, 

Or speak for Jesus' sake. 

" Oh, not ill vain ; then let us sow 

Beside all waters here ; 
At morn, at noon, at eve, we'll go, 

With sweet and holy cheer : 
Though we may here oft reap reward, 

Not till we higher go, 
To be forever with the Lord, 

Fulness of joy we'll know." 



Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree — the 
Saviour of men. What lie suffered we can never know ; 
but God laid on him the iniquity of us all, which he will- 
ingly bore to save us from eternal shame and misery. How 
great the gratitude each of us owes such a friend ! 




Tlic Baby Jesus, No. 1 



11 Jesus ! the name to sinners dear, 
The name to sinners given ; 
It scatters all our guilty fear, 
And turns our hell to heaven." 



A word to little Mary about this dear child, born of 
the Virgin Mary, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
from sin and sinners even while a babe. Was there 
ever such, a child, so sweet, so innocent, so beautiful, 
so heavenly ? Never ; and there never will be. 

"When a little baby he was worshiped by men and 
angels. Turn, if you please, dear little niece, to the 
second chapter of Matthew, and you will see how the 
wise men from the east followed the star of Bethlehem 
till it came and stood over where the young child was. 
And where, think you, this precious little one from 
heaven was, when born ? In a manger ? Yes, he, 
who made all worlds, took his first lodgings in a 



435 



436 THE BABY JESUS. 

" How much better thou art tended, 

Than the Son of God could be ; 

"When from heaven he descended, 

And became a child like thee ! " 

u The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his 
head." 

" And didst Thou, Saviour, have no home, 
Nor place to lay Thine head ? 
Was all the universe too poor, 
To offer Thee a bed ?" 

But now, as you see him in the engraving, he is 
twelve years of age, conversing with the doctors, "both 
hearing them and asking them questions. And all 
that heard him were astonished at his understanding 
and answers." Turn now to the second chapter of 
Luke, begin at the fortieth verse, and read to the close 
of said chapter. 

But, to return to Mary, his mother, with this sweet 
one folded in her arms, clasped to her bosom when an 
infant. 

That dear Baby, how precious ! We would like to 
write a book about him. But if we commenced, where 
the stopping-place ? Volumes on volumes would not 
be sufficient to unfold a thousandth part of his beau- 
ties on beauties — glories on glories. 

The story in the Bible is so briefly and simply told, 
few realize it in all its beauty. How many mothers 
remember, as they sit engaged in the delightful task 
of making tiny, beautiful garments for the first-born 



THE BABY JESUS. 437 

child, that just so Mary sat at work for the wonderful 
One, who was the Son of God ! 

We love to think of Mary and lier Babe ; how 
supremely happy she must have been — for, to every 
true mother her child is a divine object, and how much 
more would it be so did she know that the Almighty 
God himself was his Father! 

Happy, happy Mary ! 

The Baby Jesus received presents too, and very 
costly ones ; for the wise men came inquiring for him, 
and saying, "We have seen his star in the east, and 
are come to worship him." 

Think how wonderful that was. A star appeared in 
the sky, which moved and led the wise men to a place 
where lay a little infant, a tender, new-born baby, the 
destined Saviour of all mankind ! Then, when they 
had found the child and worshiped him, "they 
presented unto him gifts ; gold, frankincense, and 
myrrh." 

The dear Baby! how much he was like all other 
babies after all ! His mother washed, and dressed, and 
undressed him daily, tended him, carried him in her 
arms, sang him to sleep. What an exquisite happiness 
that must have been! Dear Mary, think of this! 
Jesus w r as as young as you, who " never did sin, neither 
was guile found in his mouth." He is the perfect ex- 
ample for all. Do you not wish, like Jesus, to go 
about doing good ? He loves little children, and will 
never refuse to hear their cries. 



438 THE BABY JESUS. 

" Then lift your little hands in prayer ; 

The Saviour bids you come ; 
Safe in His bosom He will bear 

The lambs to His bright home 
Then lay your little hand in His ; 

He'll lead you gently on, 
Through trials of a world like this, 

To scenes of bliss beyond." 

How lovingly the dear Saviour — the Lamb of 
God — welcomes little children to His happy fold ! He 
numbers the lambs among His flock. " Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God." — Luke xviii. 16. When 
you hear the Saviour saying to you in the tenderest 
accents of His love, " Child, give me thy heart," will 
you not listen to His voice ? If you come to Jesus 
now, He will take you in His arms and bless you, and 
make you happy while you live, and, when you die, 
will take you to dwell with Him forever. 

" Dear Mary, Jesus loves you ; 

Once He left His home on high, 

Suffer' d on the cross to save you, 

Died that you might never die. 

Little Mary, Jesus loves you ; 

From His arms no longer stay ; 
He is waiting. to receive you ; 

Mary, come without delay. 

Dear Mary, Jesus loves you ; 

And when life with you is o'er, 
To His heavenly home He'll take you, 

There to dwell forevermore. " 




SEE THIS FATHER AND LITTLE DAUGHTER? 



What is father doing — teaching his little daughter the 
way of life, through Jesus ? He points up toward heaven. 
"What's that for ? To impress more deeply the word of 
life, and to direct the attention to God, who, though 
far above all heavens, is here, everywhere. He knows 
our every th ought. Besides God's eyes, are there not 
other eyes beholding ? The world is full of eyes and 
ears, on every side ; on the right and on the left, eyes 
innumerable, ten thousand times ten thousand. Eyes 
above, eyes below, here, there, everywhere. Step — move 
a single inch without the gaze of some eyes — the eyes of 
Omniscience, of angels, of spirits seen and unseen, the eyes 
of heaven, the eyes of earth. Nature herself, is full of eyes 
and ears. The earth sees, hears, and speaks. The starry 
heavens, the moving planets, the thunder's crash, the light- 
ning's flash, the trees, the little hills, the glowing streams, 
the mountain-tops, the flowers of the fields, the merry song- 
sters, the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea — all have eyes, 
ears, or tongues. The buzzing insects, the creeping things, 

439 



The Holy Child Jesus— No. 2. 

" Happy, if with my latest breath. 
I may but gasp his name." 

Another word to little Mary about this beautiful, 
heavenly baby : 

Dear niece, did you ever think how lovely Jesus 
must have been when a child ? No mother before 
Mary had held so sweet an infant in her arms. While 
in many tilings he was like all other little children, he 
was never fretful, never for once lifted his tiny hand 
in opposition to his mother's will, nor gave her a glance 
or frown of displeasure. And oh ! how bright must 
have been the smile of the sinless one, and musical the 
prattle of his early childhood. 

One thing is certain, because he was a child, he 
knows just how children feel, and can sympathize with 
them in their griefs, and wants their love. Therefore 
he said, " Suffer the Utile children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not." Think when you feel wrong, and 
are tempted to speak or act wickedly, Jesus, when a 
child, never did so / and you then will not. sin against 
him, we are sure. But if you do disobey him, remem- 
ber he became a child like you, that he might know 
just what your little heart needs, and be the Saviour 
of the children, carrying you in his arms over the river 
of death, if he takes you away from earth. 

440 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP AND OF 
THE LAMBS. 

" Jesus lores a little child ; 
He was lowlj, meek, and mild. 11 

How sweet it is, dear children, to be a little one whom 
Jesus loves, and how happy must those little ones be that 
know his love and prize it ! How happy a thing it would 
be, if every little one were a lamb of the great and good 
Shepherd! And why should it not be so? Each one is 
invited to come to Jesus. If you would be happy, come to 
this great and loving Shepherd, who carries the lambs in 
his arms. Seek now your Saviour in the days of your 
childhood ; you will then be happy for life and prepared 
for death. This would not be the mere delight of the 
moment, as your pleasures now are ; it would be eternal 
happiness, eternal joy. 

Will you not come to the good Shepherd? He loves the 
lambs as well as the sheep of his flock. He is the door as 
well as the shepherd. Hear what he says : " I am the 
door of the sheep ; by me if any man enter in, he shall be 
saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." Blessed 
Jesus, draw the little ones to thyself! 

11 Jesus from heaven came down to die 
For little children young as I ; 
So great his love, his life he gave, 
Our guilty souls from hell to save. 

" Oh, may I love and praise his name, 
Who once for me a child became : 
Help me, O Lord, thy will to do ; 
My sins forgive, my heart renew. 11 



" He will feed his flock like a shepherd : he will gather 
the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom." 

441 




WATTS AND HIS CRADLE HYMN. 

" Hush, my dear ; lie still and slumber ; 
Holy angels guard thy bed ; 
Heavenly blessings without number 
Gently falling on thy head. 

" Sleep, my babe ; thy food and raiment, 
House and home, thy friends provide ; 
And without thy care or payment, 
All thy wants are well supplied. 

" How much better thou'rt attended 
Than the Son of God could be, 
When from heaven he descended, 
And became a child like thee ! 

" Soft and easy is thy cradle ; 

Coarse and hard the Saviour lay, 
When his birthplace was a stable, 
And his softest bed was hay." 

442 




LOVING THE LITTLE FOLKS. 

The love of children is a sentiment that lies snug and 
genial away down in the better depths of the souls of us 
all. It is an impulse that does honor to the nature that 
feels it most. It is only now and thpn there is a being, 
contracted and shrivelled, who can repel the little ones, and 
turn his back upon their bright childish winsomeness. One 
of the richest relishes with which God has blessed the 

443 



444 



LOVING THE LITTLE FOLKS. 



earth, one of the purest joys that flits about the passing 
pilgrim here, is the relish and joy which the presence of 
these dear immortals flings over the haunts and hearts of 
men. The world is so much lighter for their being here. 

It is sweet to have them love us. It is sweet to know 
that they delight to nestle upon our bosoms, and that their 
little arms long to clasp about our necks. It is svieet to 
feel the soft clinging tendrils of their honest hearts inter- 
twining, cosily and trustingly, in among the stouter and 
chillier tendrils of our own. The cold selfishness of the 
world is in other hearts than the children's. The deception 
that lames our faith and saps our trust is in other bosoms 
than theirs. God bless the children, the rosy, laughing 
children, the dear, true-hearted children, the beautiful 
children ! The world is ten times brighter for their being 
here. 



PAKENTS, TEACH THE LOVE OF JESUS TO YOUR 
LITTLE ONES. 

A little child sat quietly upon its mother's lap. Its soft 
blue eyes were looking earnestly into her face, w r hich was 
beaming with love and tenderness. The maternal lips were 
busy with the story of the Cross. The tones of her voice 
were low and serious, for the tale was one of mingled sad- 
ness and joy. The listening babe caught every sound. 
The crimson deepened on its little cheek as the story went 
on increasing in interest. Tears gathered in its eyes, and 
a low sob broke the stillness. The child inquired, 

" Did he die for me, mamma — and may I love him al- 
ways, and dearly, too ?" 

" Yes, my darling ; it was to win your love that he left 
his bright and beautiful home." 




The Lambs of the Flock Sweet as Heaven. 



The more little folks the more joyful they make us. 
Every new-comer adds fresh joy to the family circle. 
Let the sweet little angels come without number, if 
nurtured for Jesus, made white in his blood. The 
more little folks the better, where order is heaven's 
first law ; where peace reigns, and children are olive- 
plants around the table ; where sons grow up plants 
of the Lord's planting, and the daughters are polished 
stones, "polished after the similitude of a palace." — 
Psalm cxliv. 12. Is not joy unspeakable in such a 
family when a newly-born babe is ushered in ? 

445 



SHE SUNG HERSELF AWAY. 

While talking with a neighbor, I heard a sweet, plaint- 
ive voice singing that beautiful hymn, 

44 Jesus, lover of my soul I" 

The child was up stairs ; I knew it was a child's voice 
from its silvery softness. I listened for a while, and then 
said: 

" That child has a sweet voice." 

"Yes, she has," returned my friend. "She is always 
singing." 

I passed that way again. Summer w T as here in her ful- 
ness, strewing the earth with flowers, and the sky with 
stars. The same sweet voice was thrilling on the air, 

44 Oh, had I the wings of a dove, I would fly 1" 

This time the little singer was in the garden. I gazed 
upon the spiritual softness of her features, the sweet eyes 
like " brown-birds flying in the light," the fine, expressive 
lips, the dark silken curls; I felt that she would soon have 
her wish answered, and find a refuge in heaven. 

Autumn came ; the wild swan was turning toward the 
south ; the leaves were dropping from the trees, and spears 
of frost glittered among the grass. 

A strip of crape fluttered from the shutter of the house 
where my little singer lived. By the great white throne, 
by the river of eternal gladness, she was striking her gold- 
en harp, and singing, in the fulness of imperishable glory, 

44 She came to smile aud blush awhile, 
Like lovely flowers in May ; 
To win each heart with guileless art, 
And then to pass away !" 

446 



JESUS LOVES LITTLE FOLKS. 

44 Safe)' little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven.' 1 '' 

"Little children, Jesus loves you, 
lie invites you to his arms ; 
To his breast he waits to fold you, 
There to shield you from alarms.' 1 

Jesus was once a child, a holy child ; and here is the 
great plea for childhood. He who was once a child per- 
fectly understands and sympathizes with the heart of 
childhood. And how dare we limit the Holy One, and say 
that a child may not be a true Christian ? However early 
we begin our teachings, we w r ill find that the Holy Spirit 
has been before us. Isaiah speaks of teaching those just 
weaned — here a little, there a little, precept upon precept, 
line upon line — which is the proper manner of teaching 
children. 

Children apprehend religious truths more readily than 
almost anything else. It has even been maintained by 
some, that the children that cried in the temple, " Hosanna 
to the Son of David !" had discovered, with their nicer ap- 
prehensions, the Christ whom the rulers ignored. Early 
childhood is certainly the favored time for the inculcation 
of religious truth. Then there are no doubts. You never 
meet a child-atheist. The very credulity of childhood is a 
great advantage. Truth is allied to innocency, and the 
child believes implicitly until deception has induced dis- 
trust. Not that religious faith is the gift of nature. But 
the very aptitude to believe is favorable to the reception 
of religious truth. The child has not formed the habit of 
questioning and doubting that troubles so many adults. 
The old atheist can testify to the truth of this. 

447 



SUFFERING LITTLE FOLKS TO COMEf TO JESUS. 

44 Little feet may find the pathway 
Leading upward unto God, 
Little hands may learn to scatter 
Seeds of precious truth abroad." 

4 Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven. Matt. xix. 14. 

Maek the expression, " little children /" not big ones, but 
little ones. No matter how little they are for Jesus to take 
in his arms. Heaven is made up largely of" little folks." 

Myriads of these redeemed spirits surround the throne of 
God, tuning their little harps in praise, singing hallelujahs 
to the Lamb who loved them and gave himself for them — 
washed them and made them white in his own precious 
blood. 

44 Around the throne of God in heaven, 
Thousands of children stand ; 
Children whose sins are all forgiven, 
A holy, happy band, 
Singing, Glory, Glory, 
Glory be to God on high." 

The thought is pleasing, joyous, that in the kingdom of 
heaven there are little children ; that they form a large part 
of God's redeemed family. The thought is pleasing to 
every Christian ; but to the bereaved parent, the parent of 
children " passed into the skies," it is more than pleasing — 
it is sustaining, delightful, enrapturing. 

Yea, verily. The child to a fond parent's eye is beauti- 
ful in death ; but it will be more beautiful, more precious, 
when seen planted a brilliant diadem of the Sun of Right- 
eousness. 

No little ones are saved in heaven, or can be, except 
through the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, the Lamb 
slain. 

448 




THAT'S RIGHT, MOTHER, TEACH YOUR LITTLE ONE 

TO PRAY. 

Begi^ early, take it aside, where no eye sees but God's. 
Teach it to pray in the spirit, in faith, in the name of 
Jesus. Parents frequently inquire what prayer is suitable 
or appropriate for little folks. 

" Forgive, O Lord, forgive, I pray, 

The naughty things that I have done, 
And take my sinful heart away, 
And make me holy like thy Son." 

This prayer meets what is often a deep and felt want in 
the child's heart. The convictions of sin are very early'in 
children, earlier than most people think, and they crave 
some form of confession to God, and of supplication for 
forgiveness and purity of heart. 



" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thoe a 
crown of life." 

449 



MOTHERS THE LIGHT, THE HOPE, THE JOY 

" The first booh read, and the last booh laid aside by 
every child, is the conduct of its motlier" 

1. " First give yourself, then your child, to God. It is 
but giving him his own. Not to do it, is robbing God. 

2. Always prefer virtue to wealth — the honor that comes 
from God to the honor that comes from men. Do this for 
yourself. Do it for your child. 

3. Let your whole course be to raise your child to a high 
standard. Do not sink into childishness yourself. 

4. Give no needless commands, but when you command, 
require prompt obedience. 

5. Never indulge a child in cruelty, even to an insect. 

6. Cultivate a sympathy with your child in all lawful 
joys and sorrows. 

7. Be sure that you never correct a child until you know 
it deserves correction. Hear its story first and fully. 

8. Never allow your child to whine or fret, or to bear 
grudges. 

9. Early inculcate frankness, candor, generosity, magna- 
nimity, patriotism, and self-denial. 

10. The knowledge and fear of the Lord are the begin- 
ning of wisdom. 

11. Never mortify the feelings of your child by upbraid- 
ing it with dulness, neither inspire it with self-conceit. 

12. Pray for and with your child, often and heartily, in 
your closet. 

13. Encourage all attempts at self-improvement, "with 
humble trust in Jesus." 



" Eveky word of God is pure : he is a shield unto them 
that put their trust in him." Prov. xxx. 5. 

450 




ELI AND SAMUEL. 



Oh ! oh ! boys and girls, who are these, do you know ? 
Eli and Samuel ? Certainly ! Turn to 1 Samuel and read 
the chapter through and through ; it tells all about it, from 
first to last. All about that blessed boy, the subject of 
many prayers ; also concerning Hannah, his dear mother, a 
woman of a meek a»d quiet spirit, of strong faith, prayer 
unceasing. She had sorrow of heart, a good deal ; severe 
trials, fiery onsets ; and who has not that obeys God, labors 
for Jesus, fights the good fight lays hold on eternal 
life ? She told the Lord what she would do if he would 
give her a male child. Did she perform her vow ? Every 
syllable of it punctiliously. What the result — glory? 
Yes, glory on glory, forever and forever ! Was there ever 
such a man as this same priest and judge ? The very 
heavens shook terribly, gathered blackness ; the rains de- 
scended, the thunders crashed, the lightnings flashed, in 
answer to his prayers. Turn again if you please, little 
readers, to 1 Samuel xii. 16, 17, 18. 

Samuel grew up in the Lord (just as all little folks 
should) bright and shining as grace could make him. 

451 



HOME DUTIES. 

" Shall Wisdom cry aloud, 
And not her voice be heard ?" 

It is sad, grievous indeed, to witness the mistakes of some 
good folks in their calling ! Mothers beloved, seek first 
the kingdom of God at home ; set your own houses in order ; 
keep them in order. Get your own souls on fire, holily, 
and see to it that your sons and your daughters are on the 
life list, salvation's — beautifully, God-fearing ; ornamentals 
in all that is pure, lovely, Christ-like ; " Olive-plants around 
your table." Then you can preach and will preach power- 
fully at home and wherever the Lord in his providence 
calls you. Your little ones, lambs of the flock, walking in 
newness of life, examples of whatsoever is true, honest, just, 
pure, lovely, and of good report, will preach as you preach, 
say, " amen." 



TRAINING CHILDREN. 

Mothers, train your daughters to be mothers. Think 
what a mother ought to be in every relation of life — social, 
domestic, public, at home and abroad, by. day and by night. 
Think of Washington's mother, Samuel's, Timothy's, the 
mother of our Lord. Mothers cannot be good mothers, 
unless taught to be good mothers from their infancy. If 
all mothers were good mothers, would not our world soon 
be a paradise ? 

The Bible lays down four great rules, involving four 
great elements of successful religious training of children : 
prayer, example, instruction, and restraint. And it is 
doubted if a solitary case can be found when all these have ' 
been united, where the child has not followed in the foot- 
steps of the pious parent. 

452 



WOMAN AT HOME. 

Home is the throne of empires on which woman sits, the 
sceptre with which she wields the destiny of nations. All 
that is dear and holy, noble and divine, in society or the 
nation, centres back to home, where woman presides as the 
angel of love. 

If she would seek the honor of exerting an influence 
which shall last after the present order of the universe is 
changed, a philanthropist whose name, though not lauded 
by the fickle multitude, shall be remembered by the good 
and pure in the ages of eternity, let her not, for any social 
interest or cause, neglect the hallowed duties of home, but 
watch over them with jealous trust, with devotional con- 
stancy, with unruffled vigilance, to keep that home the 
nursery of all the virtues, the sanctuary of the heart's 
deepest loves, the " holy of holies," where the divine pres- 
ence may shine forth in her looks, and be manifest in her 
actions. 

Home is woman's true sphere. There is nothing in this 
wide world that will confer greater honor upon her than 
for her to make that home a type of what society should 
be, and of what heaven is in the graces of exalted charac- 
ter. As a wife, she should be to her husband a guardian 
angel ; as a mother, charged with the high trust of direct- 
ing the child, she should see that, like the work of the 
skilful artist, she moulds it " true to nature," beautiful and 
pure. 

" Nor steel nor fire itself hath power, 
Like woman in her prayerful hour !" 

The poet has disclosed the whole secret of woman's con- 
quering power. Fair in her virtue, smiling in her good- 
ness, she wields an influence which a mailed warrior never 

could. 

453 



HOME-WORK FOR MOTHERS. 

The parent that stays at home and takes care of children 
is doing a work as boundless as God's heart. 

As when the time for seed-sowing is past, if the seed it 
not sown no industry or regret can avail ; so when a child 
has gone forth from under the parental care, if the work is 
not done you cannot follow it or change it. Some allevia- 
tion there may be, and some after-refuge ; but there can be 
no complete remedy. There is no way of compensating 
for neglect to sow the seed at the proper time. The seed- 
sowing time is when your children are at home, in your 
family ; and if you are going to do anything for them, you 
must do it then. Then take heed. The time is flying. 
What you do for your children, do quickly, or it will be 
too late. You may be taken from them. If they are taken 
from you, thank God. Happy is that family that has 
cherubs in heaven. Blessed are they whose care and re- 
sponsibility are ended because Christ hath taken their 
darlings. Better teachers than you are, are angels. A 
better parent than you are, is God. And blessed are those 
of your children that have gone to be with him. But 
what is done for those that yet remain with you, must be 
done speedily. Your days are ages in their effect, and yet 
they are fugitive as the arrow that flits through the air. 

It has been said of John Williams' mother : " Little did 
she imagine, when her children were clustering around her 
knees, and listening to the words that fell from her lips, 
that she was training up one of the most influential mis- 
sionaries of the cross, and that distant tribes and future 
generations Avould rise up and call her blessed." A very 
similar testimony may be borne to thousands of other 
godly parents. 

454 



THE MOTHER'S DUTIES, THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE. 

Home is the centre of woman's duties and responsibil- 
ities ; yet from this centre shines forth many a cheering 
ray to light up a gloomy world. "The unbelieving hus- 
band is sanctified by the wife ;" and many a believing 
husband is encouraged by the faithful wife. Brother, do 
you hold family prayer ? Do you know how easy the task 
when the loving wife lights the lamp, lays the Bible by 
your side, and tells the little children to " sit down and be 
still, while papa prays ?" And yet, how hard the task 
when the wife is cold, seems too busy with other things, 
and makes no preparation for prayer ! Sister in the Lord, 
if your husband is a Christian and does not hold family 
prayer it is your fault. We need not tell you that it is 
your duty to continue the family altar when your husband 
is absent or sleeping in the tomb. 

" The future destiny of the child is always the work of 
the mother." " Train up a child in the way he should go, 
and when he is old he will not depart from it." The father 
should assist by every means in his power ; yet, the train- 
ing of a child must devolve mostly upon the mother. 
Every child should hear its mother pray. Many a great 
and good man has attributed his com-ersion to the labors 
of a Christian mother, who would constantly take him 
alone and lay her soft hand upon his little head and teach 
him to pray. Mother, do you thus cast bread upon the 
waters to be gathered up by your children when you are in 
the tomb ? Will your children remember you as a pray- 
ing mother? How do you expect to stand up in judgment 
and hear your lost child say, " I never heard my mother 
pray ?" 

Example has a powerful effect upon little children. They 

455 



456 the mother's duties, the mother's influence. 

will not remain little children long, therefore you must 
" work while it is clay, for the night cometh, w T hen no man 
can work." If there were more Hannahs there would be 
more Samuels. 

Said John Randolph, of Roanoke : " I should have been 
a French atheist if it had not been for one reflection, and 
that was the memory of the time when my departed 
mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me, 
on my bended knees, to say, " Our Father, who art in 
heaven." 

Well may woman rejoice in a mission so far-reaching and 
glorious in its possible results. 

Man, then, owes to woman not only his childhood, but 
his manhood. The mother follows her child through life ; 
her influence is illimitable and indestructible. Especially, 
and in a higher sense, is this true of the Christian mother. 
There is nothing more irresistible and permanent to man 
than the early impressions of a pious mother, enshrined in 
his heart, shielded by the simple charm of youthful remem- 
brances. How r ever silenced or neglected, the mysterious 
influence of a mother's love and faith will one day reassert 
the influence of bygone years. 

" My mother's voice ! how often creeps 
Its cadence on my lonely hours, 
Like healing sent on wings of sleep, 
Or dew to the unconscious flowers ! 

" I can forget her melting prayer 
While leaping pulses madly fly ; 
But in the still, unbroken air, 

Her gentle tones come stealing by — 
And years, and sin, and manhood flee, 
And leave me at my mother's knee." 




THE MOTHER'S DEATH-BED. 

" We watched her breathing through the night, 
Her breathing soft and low, 
And in her breast the wave of life 
Kept heaving to and fro. 

" So silently we seem'd to speak, 
So slowly moved about, 
As we had lent her half our powers 
To eke her being out. 

" Our very hopes belied our fears. 
Our fears our hopes belied, 
We thought her dying when she slept, 
And sleeping when she died. 

" For when the morn came dim and sad, 
And chill with early showers, 
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had 
Another morn than ours," 

457 



THE DYING MOTHER'S BEST GIFT. 

A little boy about five years of age, entered the room 
where his mother lay on her death -bed. For awhile he 
stood silent and sad. At length the mother said, feebly — 

" My child, will you not ask me how I do ?" 

Said the boy, " I know how you do, mother, you are very 
sick." 

She called him to her side, and he stood leaning upon 
the bed, looking into his mother's face, as she said, " Do I 
look as I used to when I was well, Charley ?" 

"No, mother, your eyes are sunken, and your face is 
pale and thin." 

" Well, Charles, sometimes people who are very sick, as 
I am, do not get well. I may not get well." 

" I know it, mother ; my little brother, Frankie, who was 
sick last year, did not get well : he died. Do you wish to 
die, mother ?" 

" I should like to get well to take care of you, if it is the 
Lord's will ; but if not, I am willing to die. Do you not 
wish me to get well, Charley ?" 

" Yes, mother, I want you to get well ; but if the Saviour 
wants you to go and live with him, I am willing you should 
go, mother." 

Then for awhile they looked at each other ; he earnestly, 
thoughtfully ; she with all a mother's fondness beaming from 
her eyes, feeling that she saw him for the last time on earth. 
She then took from her pillow a little Bible, soiled with 
much use, and told her boy how she prized it, and how 
precious were its promises, and bade him read and love it 
for her sake, for it told him of the Saviour, and the way of 
life. 

458 



459 

"And did the disciples write in this book all they knew 
of the Saviour ?" 

"Yes," said she, "all that God would have them write: 
it is all his word." 

The boy took the book, promising to read it and to love 
it ; but after a pause — 

" Mother," said he, " this reminds me of some poetry I 
read the other day." And he repeated : 

" My mother's hands this Bible clasped, 
She, dying, gave it me." 

The mother kissed her child, looked mournfully on him 
for a few moments, and thus they parted to meet no more 
on earth. 

These lines, by the mother's request, were written in the 
Bible she gave her child, and in coming years, should his 
life be spared, he will read them, and who will doubt the 
beneficial influence of that parting hour ? 

" This book is all that's left me now ; 
Tears will unbidden start ; 
With faltering lip and throbbing brow, 
I press it to my heart. 

" For many generations past, 
Here is our family tree ; 
My mother's hands this Bible clasp'd, 
She, dying, gave it me." 



" The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them : 
but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness." 
Prov. xi. 6. 




MY MOTHER'S GRAVE. 

The relics of departed worth 
Lie shrouded here in gloom ; 

And here, with aching heart, I mark 
My own dear mother's tomb. 

Oh, as upon her peerless grave 

I fix my weeping eyes, 
How many fond remembrances 

In quick succession rise ! 

Again her kind maternal voice 

Falls on my listening ear, 
As when she taught my youthful soul, 

The God of love to fear. 



Father of heaven ! my mother's God ! 

Before Thy blissful seat, 
Among the glorious heirs of light, 

May I that mother meet ! 

460 



HOME PIETY FOR LITTLE FOLKS PERPETUAL. 
Parent — 

" Thou canst not toil in vain ; 

Cold, heat, and moist, and dry, 
Shall foster and mature the grain 
For garners in the sky. 11 

One thing is certain — none educated in a home of cheer- 
ful, consistent, heart-felt piety, the love of Jesus, regener- 
ated and sanctified, can ever afterward be led to despise 
the religion of the Bible. 

A child trained from infancy's early dawnings " in the 
way he should go" till the age of maturity or the leav- 
ing the paternal roof, God says, " he will not depart 
from it." 

The memory of such a home ; the echo of the songs of 
chihlhood; the vision of the family altar, where once an 
unbroken band was sheltered under the wing of divine 
protection, and father, mother, sister, brother, now dead or 
far away, sang the dear old heart-hymns and joined in the 
same prayer — all these and yet more will revisit the soul, 
and keep alive the heavenly spark early enkindled, the 
love of God rooted and grounded. Parent, believest thou 
this? 

Alas for the home that sends forth its inmates into this 
perilous world with no golden links of pious remembrance 
to hold them by a safe home-anchor until they outride the 
storms of life ! 

Christian fathers and mothers ! think well of your re- 
sponsibilities. A few years will make sad changes in your 
homes. The bright and gay throng of children that peo- 
ple your house to-day will soon emerge from childhood, 
and go out from your presence to the great battle of life, 
You have not long to train them for the task. 

461 



LIFE, LIFE WITH THE HUSBAND : LIFE, LIFE WITH 
THE WIFE AT THE MERCY-SEAT. 

14 He prayeth well who loveth well : 
He prayeth best who loveth best. 1 ' 

Man" and wife, do you pray together ? Can you live in 
love without it — in peace, joy, harmony, good-will, mount 
on eagle's wing, in Elijah's chariot, triumph over sin and 
Satan ? Is it possible you have wisdom, grace on grace, 
equal to the emergencies of the day — gospel fire burning 
brightly in the family, around the table, the fireside, the 
altar of prayer and praise, morning, noon, and eventide — 
and more than all, to train the " little folks" exclusively 
for Jesus, heavenward — save you gain spiritual strength re- 
newedly at the mercy-seat unitedly ? Can you speed up- 
ward and onward on wings seraphic, merciful, and gracious 
to the third heavens, keeping your garments unspotted 
from the world, except through the medium of special, 
fervent, importunate intercession to the God of all grace 
and glory unitedly ? 

We speak not of closet seasons, telegraphic dispatches, 
ejaculatory breathings, constant, evermore, the upward 
tendency of the soul alive in God, lying down, rising up, 
going out, coming in ; nor of family and social interviews, 
at home and abroad ; but aside from these hallowed scenes 
of Christian fellowship, those of the huslband and wife are 
separate, distinct, superadded, exclusive of all other devo- 
tional exercises entirely. And these united, soul-kindling, 
life-giving aspirations of faith and prayer, prayer and faith, 
are unlimited as to frequency, time, and place. Once daily 
they may be, twice, three times, or like the Psalmist, 
" Seven times a day do I praise thee, because of thy right- 
eous judgments." Paal m cxix. 164. 

462 



THE MARRIAGE TIE. 

1. That, according to the law of marriage, as contained 
in the word of God, there is but one ground of divorce — 
fornication by one of the parties. 

2. That the bond of union is for life. 

3. That no human laws can abrogate or alter Divine laws, 
but especially the law of marriage, because there is spe- 
cific prohibition of human interference to separate man and 
wife. 

4. That the only limitation of this prohibition is founded 
on the right of government to punish. 

Man and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offences 
of each other in the beginning of their conversation. Every 
little thing can blast an infant blossom ; as the breath of 
the south can shake the little rings of the vine, when first 
they begin to curl like the locks of a new-weaned boy ; but 
when, by age and consolidation, they stiffen into the hard- 
ness of a stem, and have, by the warm embraces of the sun 
and the kisses of heaven, brought forth their clusters, they 
can endure the storms of the north, and the loud noises of 
a tempest, and yet never be broken. So are the early unions 
of an unfixed marriage ; watchful and observant, jealous 
and busy, inquisitive and careful, and apt to take alarm at 
every unkind word. For infirmities do not manifest them- 
selves in the first scenes, but in the succession of a long 
society ; and it is not chance when it appears at first, but it 
is want of love. 



" Let thy fountain be blessed : and rejoice with the wife 
of thy youth. JProv. v. 18. 



463 




MOTHER AND DAUGHTER AT FATHER'S GRAVE. 

Look at this, little friends ; see the mother and her 
lovely little daughter dropping tears of sorrow for one 
dear to them as life. " Blessed are the dead that die in the 
Lord." 

" Fare thee well, my father, 

Until the trump shall sound, 
And wake thee from thy resting-place, 
The cold and silent ground. 



"'Tis then we hope to meet thee 
In a better world than this, 
Where tears are wiped from every eye, 
And all is perfect bliss." 

464 



HOW TO MAKE THE MARRIED LIFE HAPPY. 

When Robert Newton, the Wesleyan pulpit orator, mar- 
ried, he an'd his bride began the married life by retiring 
twiee eaeli day to pray with and for each other. This prac- 
tice they kept up, when opportunity served, to the end of 
life. Mark the result !• When an old man, Mr. Newton 
remarked: " In the course of a short time, my wife and I 
shall celebrate the jubilee of our marriage ; and I know not 
that, during the fifty years of our union, an unkind look or 
an unkind word has ever passed between us." 

That was certainly a happy married life. What made 
it so ? Did not that hour of daily prayer make the bond 
of peace so strong that none of the manifold trials of a long 
public life could even strain it ? Had religion been stricken 
from their lives, would not pride, vanity, or passion have 
grown into a power of discord in their hearts ? Did such 
absolute peace ever reign over the married life of any irre- 
ligious pair for half a century, since the fall ? Does it 
reign over the reader's married life ? Is not the religious 
element needed in his married life to render it even tolera- 
ble ? Consider the claims of religion, dear reader, from 
this standpoint, and you will conclude that religion is need- 
ful, not only for your present and eternal happiness, but 
also for your domestic enjoyment. 

The godly husband and the godly wife are true help- 
meets, the one to the other. They belong to the same fam- 
ily, speak the same sweet language, are travelling the same 
happy road, and are journeying to the same blissful home. 

Finally, to all the dear children of God, we would say, 
marry " only in the Lord." Let his word be your guide, 
your rule, his glory your aim, and he will direct your path 
through life, will sustain you in death, and conduct you 
safely to his heavenly kingdom. 

465 




THE DYING WIFE. 

Husband, is your loved one going, gone, gone? 
Are angels hovering around her departing spirit? 
Once she watched over your sick bed with more than 
angelic vigilance and tenderness ! 

" Thus watch'd that tir'd, patient one, 

By night as well as day, 
In sadness, and almost alone, 

Till weeks had pass'cl away ; 
Bereft of sleep — deprived of rest — 

Oppress'd — borne down with care, 
Till, oil ! her labors have been bless'd, 

For God has heard the pray'r. 
Her cheek resumes its wonted glow, 

And placid is her brow ; 
I thought I lov'd her years ago, 

I know I Love her NOW." 
466 



THE DYING WIFE. 4G7 

"In comparison with the loss of a wife, all other 
bereavements are trifling. The wife ! she who busied 
herself so unweariedly for the precious ones around 
her; bitter, bitter i^ the tear that falls upon her cold 
clay ! You stand beside her coffin and think of the 
past. It seems an amber-colored pathway, where the 
sun shone upon beautiful flowers, or the stars hung 
glittering overhead. Fain would the soul linger there. 
No thorns are remembered save those your hands may 
unwillingly have planted. Her noble, tender heart 
lies open to your inmost sight. You think of her now 
as all gentleness, all beauty, all purity. But she is 
dead ! The dear head that once lay upon your bosom, 
now rests in the still darkness, upon a pillow of clay. 
The hands that have ministered so untiringly, are 
folded, white and cold, beneath the gloomy portal. 
The heart whose every beat measured an eternity ot 
love* lies under your feet. The flowers she bent over 
with smiles, bend now above her in tears, shaking 
the dew from petals that the verdure around her may 
be kept green and beautiful. 

" There is so strange a hush in every room, no light 
footstep passing around. No smile to greet you at 
nightfall. And the old clock ticks, and strikes, and 
ticks — it was such music when she could hear it ! 
Now it seems a knell on the hours through which you 
watched the shadows of death gathering upon her 
sweet lace. 



468 THE DYING WIFE. 

" And every day the clock repeats that old story. 
Many another tale it telleth too — of beautiful words 
and deeds that are registered above. You feel — oh, 
how often — .that the grave can not keep her." 

" : Twas midnight, and he sat alone, 

The husband of the dead. 
That day the dark dust had been thrown 

Upon her buried head. 
Her orphaned children round him slept, 

But in their sleep would moan ; 
Then fell the first tear he had wept — 

He felt he was alone. 

" The world was full of life and light, 

But ah ! no more for him ! 
His little world once warm and bright 

It now was cold and dim. 
Where wa3 her sweet and kindty face? 

Where was her cordial tone ? 
He gazed around his dwelling place, 

And felt he was alone. 

"He looked into his cold, wild heart, # 

All sad and un resigned, 
He asked how he had done his part 

To one so true, so kind ? 
Each error pa.st he tried to track — 

could he but atone ! 
He'd give his life to bring her back — 

In vain, he is alone." 



Hope looks beyond the bounds of time, 
When what we now deplore 

Shall rise in full immortal prime, 
And bloom to fade no more. 




LITTLE FOLKS PITYING THE POOR 



That's right, little friends, open your hearts and purses 
wide. " Give, and it shall be given — pressed down, running 
over." "He that watereth shall be watered." "Blessed 
is he .that considereth the poor." This poor boy in the 
picture is not only poverty-stricken, but feeble in health, 
emaciated. We rejoice to* see these little hands open for 
his relief. When we give we should do it cheerfully. 
" The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." But never give, 
young readers, " to be seen of men." If you do, you have 
" no reward of your Father who is in heaven." " Let not 
your left hand know what your right hand doeth." Turn 
to Matthew, vi. 1-4, and see what Jesus says about alms- 
giving. 

But stop, little folks, have you given yourselves to the 
Lord, wholly, spirit, soul, and body, "to be his forever?" 

4G9 



470 



LITTLE FOLKS PITYING THE POOR. 



This is the first thing. Never put the cart before the 
horses. First of all repent, believe on Jesus, live in the 
Spirit, walk in the Spirit. " Whatsoever ye do, do it 
heartily to the Lord and not unto men." Then when all 
is on the altar Christ Jesus, give, ke^p on giving, withhold 
not your little hands. 

" Sow in the morn thy seed ; 
At eve hold not thy han^l ; 
To doubt and fear give thou no heed ; 
Broadcast it o'er the land." 

Give as God enables you, and as opportunity offers. 
Give yourselves first ; then you will be duly prepared to 
give your substance, the bounties heaven bestows. Give 
while it is in your power to give. Be thankful to God for 
opportunities to give ; and be sure to embrace them cheer- 
fully, at the very time the heart moves charitably. Don't 
wait to be called upon, or urged to give to objects of 
mercy and love ; but seek them out, go in search of them, 
as Job did. Ask God to open new avenues, new channels 
of mercy for your full, generous, overflowing hearts. Tell 
him you are his steward, that you desire to know how to 
disburse, when and where. In giving we live, move, and 
have our being — it is life to the soul. The choicest bless- 
ings of heaven rest on the cheerful stiver. 

" Cast thy bread upon the waters : thou shalt find it 
after many days." " It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." 

Give ! " How much ?" As the Lord enables you, pros- 
pers you. 

" As freely we ourselves receive, 
So freely must we ever give." 

How much did the poor widow give ? One-tenth? Nay; 
' all the living she had." Luke^ xxi. 4. 



472 
THE " MISSIONARY RABBITS." 

" Hallo ! here you are !" cried Uncle Ben, looking into 
one of the stalls and seeing Harry feeding a pair of rabbits. 

" See how they love this cabbage-leaf, uncle," said 
Harry, settling himself comfortably in the clean hay that 
was spread on the floor. " I do love my bunnies ; I have 
got six, and two of them are as white as snow. These are my 
speckled ones, and the next are my * silver sprigs ;' they 
are the best of all." 

" How long have you had them ?" asked Uncle Ben. 

" Oh, I've kept rabbits two years, and sold twenty for 
fifty cents a piece." 

" Twenty ! So you have earned ten dollars. That's a 
fortune for a boy like you. What have you done with it*?" 

" I paid two dollars, a couple of months ago, for the 
silver sprigs and their new hutch, and I've spent a dollar 
for feed and repairs." 

" That leaves seven dollars ; did you buy books ?" 

" No, sir ; father buys my books." 

" Did you buy clothes ?" 

" No ; father gets them, too." 

" Well, you didn't pay for your schooling. Did you get 
playthings or sweetmeats ?" 

" No, Uncle Ben ; these have always been my missionary 
rabbits. I got them for that. All the money goes for 
the missionaries. I wish it were twice as much. As soon 
as I get a bill saved, if it's one dollar, or two, or more, off 
it goes to our minister, and he sends it to the society for 
me, to the treasurer, and you can't think the good it does 
me to know I'm helping to send the Bible to the heathen. 
Do you know, Uncle Ben," said Harry, " I've a notion that 
when I get to be a man I shall carry the Bible to the 
heathen myself?" 



HINTS TO LITTLE FOLKS ON TABLE MANNERS. 

Young friends, never keep folks waiting : be prompt 
get your seat quietly before the blessing is pronounced. 

" In silence take your seat, 
And give thanks to God before you eat." 

Come with clean hands, clean faces, combed heads, and 
thankful hearts. 

Sit still ; be quiet ; wait patiently till others are helped. 

Never stretch your arm across the table for food ; this is 
impolite. When you wish for an article, ask for it politely. 

Never find fault with your food; be thankful for the 
simplest, plainest fare. 

Eat such things as are placed before you, asking no 
questions, making no wry faces. 

Some little folks render themselves ridiculous by mak- 
ing remarks while older persons are talking. 

If need be, help others to any dish or- article that stands 
nearest you. 

Eat slowly ; masticate well your food. 

Be careful that you spill nothing. A beautiful white 
tablecloth looks badly, soiled with liquids or things from 
your plate. 

" The tablecloth you must not spoil, 
Nor with your food yonr fingers soil." 

Never leave the table without permission. Some little 
boys and girls eat hastily, jump and run ! Oh ! oh ! 

Keep your seats till all rise from the table. 

Children truly polite at table, are almost sure to be po- 
lite everywhere. 

473 



THINGS NOT IN ORDER IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

1. To stand before the church-door before service. 

2. To engage in any kind of conversation, even religious, 
between the time of your going in and the commencement 
of worship. That interval should be spent in composing 
the thoughts for the solemnities of the approaching ser- 
vices. 

3. To salute persons coming in by bowing, smiling, &c. 

4. To look around to catch the eye of a friend, and smile 
at any remark from the pulpit. 

5. To allow children to be stuffing themselves during 
the services with apples, sweet-cakes, candy, or anything 
else. 

6. Sleeping in church is not in order. 

7. To be reaching for garments or adjusting the dress 
while the blessing is pronounced. 

8. To commence laughing, talking, and saluting one 
another, as soon as the people are dismissed. 

9. To stand in the door or aisle, and detain others from 
getting out, is not polite or in order. 

10. To stand around the door, gazing at the ladies as 
they leave the church, to see who conducts them, and 
many other things, which as little concern others, is de- 
cidedly out of order. 



MISBEHAVIOR IN THE HOUSE OF WORSHIP 

Shows a want of common respect and decency ; hardens 
the heart, sears the conscience, meets the frowns of the 
Almighty. It is a disgrace to parents, and shows how 
greatly and wickedly they have neglected parental dis- 
cipline. 

474 



GIRLS SHOULD LEARN TO KEEP HOUSE. 

" No young lady can be too well instructed in any 
thing which will affect the comfort of a family. 
"Whatever position in society she occupies, she needs 
a practical knowledge of the duties of a housekeeper. 
She may be placed in such circumstances that it will 
not be necessary for her to perform much domestic 
labor ; but on this account she needs no less knowl- 
edge than if she was obliged to preside personally 
over the cooking-stove and pantry. Indeed, I have 
often thought that it is more difficult to direct others, 
and requires more experience, than to do the same 
work with our own hands. 

Mothers are frequently so nice and particular that 
they do not like to give up any part of their care to 
their children. This is a great mistake in their man- 
agement, for they are often burdened with labor, and 
need relief. Children should be early taught to make 
themselves useful — to assist their parents in every way 
in their power, and to consider it a privilege to do so. 

" Young people can not realize the importance of 
a thorough knowledge of housewifery, but those who 
have suffered the inconveniences and mortifications 
of ignorance can well appreciate it. Children should 
be early indulged in their disposition to bake and ex- 
periment in cooking in various ways. It is often but 

475 



476 GIRLS SHOULD LEARN TO KEEP HOUSE. 

a { troublesome help ' which they afford, still it is a 
great advantage to them. 

" I know a little girl who, at nine years old, made 
a loaf of bread every week during the winter. Her 
mother taught her how much yeast, and salt, and 
flour to use, and she became quite an expert baker. 
Whenever she is disposed to try her skill in making 
simple cakes or pies she is permitted to do so. She 
is thus, while amusing herself, learning an important 
lesson. Her mother calls her her little housekeeper, 
and often permits her to get what is necessary for the 
table. She hangs the keys by her side, and very mu- 
sical their jingling is to her ears. I think, before she 
is out of her teens, upon which she has not yet en- 
tered, that she will have some idea how to cook. 

" Some mothers give their daughters the care of 
housekeeping, each a week by turns. It seems to me 
a good arrangement, and a most useful part of their 
education. 

" Domestic labor is by no means incompatible with 
the highest degree of refinement and mental culture. 
Many of the most elegant, accomplished women I 
have known, have looked well to their household du- 
ties, and have honored themselves and their husbands 
by so doing." 

Thus far from Anna Hope ; and who Anna Hope 
is we know not— but one thing we are sure of, she is 
not wise above what is written. Solomon speaks the 



NEVER PUT OFF. 477 

praises and properties of a good wife, in Proverbs, 
chapter xxxi. Girls, will you read it ? Begin at 
verse 10th. 

Economy, taste, skill in cooking, and neatness in 
the kitchen, have a great deal to do in making life 
happy and prosperous. The charm of good house- 
keeping is in the order, economy, and taste displayed 
in attention to little things, and these little things 
have a wonderful influence, A dirty kitchen and bad 
cooking have driven many a one from home to seek 
comfort and happiness somewhere else. None of our 
excellent girls are fit to be married until they are 
thoroughly educated in the deep and profound mys- 
teries of the kitchen. 



NEVER PUT OFF. 

Whene'er a duty waits for thee, 
"With sober judgment view it, 

And never idly wish it done ; 
Begin at once and do it. 

For Sloth says falsely, " By and by 

Is just as well to do it ;" 
But present strength is surest strength, 

Begin at once and do it. 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

The mother who indulges her daughter in recreation or 
idleness, while she performs the service which the daughter 
should have done, is doing a most serious injury to the 
child she loves. Many mothers, from a mistaken kindness, 
perhaps, are committing this error. In many families, even 
in very humble circumstances, where daughters will, sooner 
or later, be compelled to rely upon their own efforts for 
support, or else live in the greatest necessity, they are al- 
lowed to grow up without any fixed habits of industry, 
and with very little knowledge of those duties which they 
may be required to discharge in life. 

The mother rises early in the morning, prepares break- ' 
fast for her household, while her grown-up daughter sleeps 
away the fresh hours, and only performs her toilet in time 
to take her seat late at the table which her mother has 
spread, with a pale cheek, languid air, and, perhaps, no ap- 
petite for the food which her mother has prepared. Both 
are committing a mistake which both will have occasion to 
regret in later years. The mother performs her daily rou- 
tine of domestic duties, does her washing, ironing, cooking, 
house-cleaning, while the daughter, after some light and 
unimportant service, dresses herself to entertain company, 
make calls, take walks, or still worse, waste her hours in 
reading novels, and poring over light and trashy literature. 
A grave and lasting wrong is done to the child, a wrong 
which may entail sorrow for a lifetime. It is no wonder 
mothers sometimes say, " girls are not worth as much as 
they used to be when we were young." How can they be, 
when mothers do not train them to those stern, but needful 
social virtues, those habits of domestic industry, and that 
knowledge of home-duties, without which no daughter can 

478 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 479 

make a home happy, and fill with honor the station of a 
wife and a mother ? 

Mrs. Ellis, alluding to working mothers and idle daugh- 
ters, says : " It is a most painful spectacle in families where 
the mother is the drudge, to see the daughters elegantly 
dressed, reclining at their ease, with their drawing, their 
music, their fancy-work, and their reading ; beguiling them- 
selves of the lapse of hours, days, and weeks, and never 
dreaming of their responsibilities ; but as a necessary con- 
sequence of the neglect of duty, growing weary of their 
useless lives, laying hold of every newly invented stimu- 
lant to rouse their drooping energies, and blaming their 
God for having placed them where they are. 

" These individuals will often tell you, with an air of af- 
fected compassion — for who can believe it is real ? — that 
1 poor, dear mamma is working herself to death.' Yet, 
no sooner do you propose that they should assist her, than 
they declare she is quite in her element — in short, that she 
would never be happy if she had only half as much to do." 

Therefore, idleness is the hotbed of temptation, the cra- 
dle of disease, the master of time, the canker-worm of felici- 
ty. To him that has no employment, life, in a little while, 
will have no novelty ; and when novelty is laid in the grave, 
the funeral of comfort will soon follow. 



" Doth not wisdom cry ? and understanding put forth 
her voice ? She standeth in the top of high places, by the 
way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at 
the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto 
you, O men, I call ; and my voice is unto the sons of man." 
JProv. viii. 1-4. 



HONORING FATHER AND MOTHER. 

A WORD TO THE LITTLE EOLK8. 

44 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee." Exodus, xx. 12. 

Very few sins are greater than disobedience to parents. 
God eyes this iniquity with fearful and special judgments ! 
We should be unwilling to trust or employ boys or girls 
who were disobedient to their parents. We never knew 
an impudent, disobedient urchin turn % out well. The curse 
of God rests upon him. 

" Whoever makes his parent's heart to bleed, 
Shall have a child that will avenge the deed." 

One thing is certain — an undutiful son and a disobedient 
daughter cannot long prosper. For a season they may ap- 
pear well to the eye of the stranger ; but their self-will and 
stubbornness are soon discovered, and they are despised. 
A child who abuses his parents w T ill not hesitate to abuse 
anybody. Neither age nor talents receive respect from 
him. 

The command, " Honor thy father and thy mother," is 
founded upon an immutable law, most imperiously de- 
manded in social and domestic life. The reward of filial 
obedience is very great, It is a beautiful sight to see 
feeble old age reclining upon the bosom of manhood and 
youth, and the picture is doubly enchanting when youth 
and manhood cherish their trust with a filial and patient 
regard. 

Young man, if you would plant thorns by the side of your 
future pathw r ay ; if you would be haunted amid the groves 
and retreats of maturer life with the most fearful spectres, 
treat with coldness and indifference those who gave you 
birth, 480 




LOOK! SEE THIS BOY WIPING HIS EYE! DOWNCAST? 



What's the matter ? Bad, is he ? How otherwise ? 
And for his badness he has just now been receiving reproof, 
the word of chastisement. And of what mischievousness, 
self-will, or disobedience he is guilty we know not. Such 
a boy give his parents trouble ? No end to it ; and this 
trouble will go on and on, and may-be bring down their 
gray hairs to the grave prematurely, sorrowing ! 

The evil stop here ? Nay ; if this bad boy is permitted to 
live, who knows how many other boys and girls he may 
corrupt, lead the downward road to perdition ! " One sinner 
destroyeth much good." " Behold how great a matter a 
little fire kindleth." 

Parent, did you do your duty to this wayward son from 
the outset — lend him to the Lord forever, as Hannah did 
little Samuel, ere he saw the sunbeams of opening day 

481 



A SPOILED BOY. 

Who was he ? He was Adonijah, one of David's 
sons. How w T as he spoiled ? By having his own 
way, and not being corrected by his father when he 
did wrong. The record is : " His father displeased 
him not at any time in saying — why hast thou done 
so ?" How do you know that he was spoiled ? His 
conduct shows it ; he was puffed up with vanity and 
pride, was headstrong, disobedient, and profligate. 
He aspired after the throne ; said, " I will he King; 
and prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty 
men to run before him," and treated his royal parent 
with contempt. To what end did he come ? To no 
good end. Such self-conceited, arrogant, wicked boys 
never come to any good end. He died the ignomin- 
ious death of a traitor. He was executed. Matthew 
Henry, commenting upon the course of this spoiled 
boy, says, " He in return made a fool of his father. 
Because he was old and confined to his bed, he 
thought no notice was to be taken of him, and there- 
fore exalted himself, and said — 7" will le King" 
Children that are indulged, learn to be proud and am- 
bitious, and that is the ruin of a great many young 
people. 

482 




LITTLE FOLKS BUILDING ON A SANDY FOUNDATION. 

BUSY ARE THEY HERE, LITTLE AND BIG? 

" There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways 
of deaths Pro v. xiv. 12. 

That's right — away with idlers, snails, and drones. 
Give us the workers, the go-ahead folks. Off with your 
gloves, mittens, ruffles, silks, and satins — strip to it. 
" Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh wherein 
no man shall work." 

But what are these busy folks about ? Building a house ? 

* 483 



484 LITTLE FOLKS BUILDING ON A SANDY FOUNDATION. 

Where — on a rock or on the sand? If on a rock, with 
foundation deep, it will stand, though the rains descend, 
floods come sweepingly, and the winds blow fiercely, ter- 
ribly, hurricane-like ! 

But if these little builders are building on the sand — 
what now, when the rains come, the floods dash and over- 
flow, the winds sweep all before them ? Oh ! oh ! what a 
fall ! Well, it is just so when little folks and great folks 
build their hopes for eternity on a false foundation, as 
many do, without true repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus, 
and a godly walk and conversation. Woe ! woe ! WOE ! 
to these mistaken souls. 

" He that loveth me, keepeth my commandments." 
"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his com- 
mandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 

They are like the foolish virgins, who took their lamps but 
took no oil in them. When the marriage feast was ready 
they entered not in. When they cried, " Lord, Lord, open 
to us !" the reply was, " Verily I say unto you, I know you 
not," Matt xxv. 11, 12. 

" Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have 
we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out 
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? 
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23. 
" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
will of my Father who is in heaven." 



"The day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the 
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble." 



PEACOCK AND BUTTERFLY FOLKS. 




ittle boys or girls tipped off gaily 
in fine things, gew-gaws, and 
artificials, inflated with pride and 
self-importance, remind us of the 
peacock and butterfly. 

" Some poor little ignorant children delight 
In wearing fine ribbons and caps ; 
But this is a very ridiculous sight, 

Though they do not know it perhaps." 

Young readers, how is it with you ? Are you fond 
of fine clothes ? Do you think more of a pretty face, 
a new dress, a new bonnet, a new coat, or a new hat, 
than you do of the improvement of your mind and 
heart ? of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ ? 

Shows us a girl that spends her leisure moments 
looking in the glass, or making some bit of finery, 
and we will show you a girl with a head as symmetri- 
cal as a balloon, and as light or vain as the peacock. 

Show us a boy that is always noticing what sort of 
clothes other people have on, and would rather have 
a nice suit and stay out of school, than a plain suit 
and go to school, and we will show you a boy that 
bids fair to be, if not already, a sinner and a dunce. 

485 



486 EARLY CHARITY. 

Do you know, little folks, that the poor sheep and 
silk-worms wore that very clothing long before? 
u The tulip and the butterfly appear in far gayer coats 
than you. Dress fine as you will, flies, worms and 
flowers exceed you still." 

Does God take delight in fine clothes, that tend to 
vanity and pride ? " My son, give me thy heart." 

%l Hear ye not a voice from heaven, 
To the listening spirit given ? 
Children, come ! it seems to say, 
Give your hearts to me to-day." 



EARLY CHARITY. 

Benevolence should be the first thing taught to 
the little folks, the blessedness of doing good, of mak- 
ing others happy : deeds of mercy should be incul- 
cated, rooted, and grounded at the early dawnings of 
infantile thought, word, and deed. Parents, teach 
your children to do good, and to communicate, to 
administer comfort and consolation ; to diffuse light, 
life, and salvation. Teach them that it " is more 
blessed to give than to receive," and when they are 
old they will not depart from it. Seek first for your 
rising offspring this righteousness, and all things else 
necessary for time and eternity will follow. 



WWW 




BUSY FOLKS, OE LITTLE FOLKS BUSY. 

LITTLE FOLKS BUSY? BUSY AS A BEE THAT GATHERS HONEY FROM EVERY 
OPENING FLOWER. 



Keep them still ? No, you can't. It's work, work, from 
sunrise to sunset. How much, think you, does a little 
child daily? can you tell? It is doing this, doing that — 
tottering here, tottering there — climbing up here, kneeling 
down there, running to another place, but never still. 
Twisting and turning, rolling and doubling, as if testing 
every bone and muscle for their future uses. It is very 
curious to watch it. One who does so will understand the 
deep breathing of the little sleeper, as, with one arm tossed 
over its curly head, it prepares for the next day's gym- 
nastics. Tireless through the day, till that time comes, 
as the maternal love that accommodates itself, hour after 
hour, to its thousand wants and caprices, real and imaginary. 

487 




LOVING LITTLE FOLKS. 

Who does not — 

" Thank God for little children- 
Bright flowers by earth's wayside — 
The dancing, joyous lifeboats 
Upon life's stormy tide." 

These lively cherubs enliven our pathway and 
cheer us onward. They are the roses of morning, the 
flowers of Eden, the spice of life, the smiling beauties 
of spring-time. How many valuable lessons do little 
children — sweet, smiling, lovely, obedient, lamb-like 
— teach us ! 

Jesus took little children in his arms, blessed them, 
and said, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven" — " Ex- 



LOVING LITTLE FOLKS. 489 

cept ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever, 
therefore, humbleth himself as this little child, the 
same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." — Matt, 
xviii. 3. 

11 Thank God for little children— 

When our skies are cold and grey, 
They steal as sunshine in our hearts, 
And charm our cares away. 

I almost think the angels, 

Wno tend life's gardens fair, 
Drop down the sweet wild blossoms 

That bloom around us here. 

It seems a breath of heaven 

Hound many a cradle lies, 
And every little baby 

Brings a blessing from the skies. 

Dear mothers guard these jewels, 

As sacred offerings meet, 
A wealth of household treasures, 

To lay at Jesus' feet." 



Send your little child to bed happy. Whatever 
cares press, give it a warm good-night kiss as it goes 
to its pillow. The memory of this in the stormy 
years which fate may have in store for the little one, 
will be like Bethlehem's star to the bewildered shep- 
herds. " My father — my mother — loved me !" Lips 
parched with the world's fever will become dewy 
again at this thrill of youthful memories. Kiss your 
little child before it goes to sleep ! 



GEMS FOR LITTLE FOLKS. 

1. Keep a list of your friends ; and let God be first on 
the list, however long it may be. 

2. Keep a list of the gifts you get ; and let Christ, who 
is the unspeakable gift, be first. 

3. Keep a list of your mercies ; and let pardon and life 
stand at the head. 

4. Keep a list of your joys ; and let joy unspeakable and 
full of glory be first. 

5. Keep a list of your hopes ; and let the hope of heaven 
be foremost. 

6. Keep a list of your sorrows ; and let sorrow for sin be 
first. 

7. Keep a list of your enemies ; and however many they 
may be, put down the "old man" and the "old serpent" 
first. 

8. Keep a list of your sins ; and let the sin of unbelief 
be set as first and worst of all. 

9. Be careful of your good name, for " it is better than 
precious ointment," " rather to be chosen than great riches." 
JProv. xxii. 1. 

" Stand on the right, and with clean hands, 
Exalt the truth on high ; • 
Thou'lt find warm, sympathizing hearts, 
Among the passers by. 

" Stand for the right ; proclaim it loud ; 
Thou'lt find an answering tone 
In honest hearts, and thou no more 
Be doom'd to stand alone !" 

490 



LITTLE FOLKS KEEP ON DOING GOOD? YES, 
THEY DO— 

Mission atio here, missionate there, sow the good seed 
hero, sow the good seed there. "In the morning sow thy 
seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand." 

11 Thou know'st not which may thrive, 
The late or early sown. 11 

There is hanging on the wall of a shepherd's cottage, 
amid the ruins of an old castle in North Wales, a card, on 
which is printed, in large letters, these lines 

"For Jesus Christ's sake, 
Do all the good you can, 
To all the people you can, 
t In all the places you can, 
At all the times you can, 
And as long as you can." 

Very simple words, but they lay out work for a Chris- 
tian's lifetime. 

Dear children, will you commit these lines to memory, 
and not only be able to repeat them, but to put them in prac- 
tice by doing deeds of kindness and speaking words of love 
to all around you, remember the poor, the sick, the afflicted, 
" and him that hath no helper," for Jesus Christ's sake 
evermore ? If you wish to be happy, be good and do good, 
and true happiness will be yours now and forever. 



Oh, happy they who in their youth 
Are brought to know and love the truth ; 
For none but those whom truth makes free 
Can e'er enjoy true liberty." 

491 




THE LITTLE ONE SLEEPS. 



SHE IS NOT " DEAD BUT SLEEPETH." 



Yery many little babies do sleep the sleep of death » 

11 There's many an empty cradle, 
There's many a vacant bed, 
There's many a lonely bosom, 
Whose joy and light have fled." 

Once in a happy home a sweet, bright baby died. 
On the evening of the day, when the children gath- 
ered around their mother, all sitting very sorrowful, 
Alice, the eldest, said : — 

" Mother, you took all the care of the baby while 
she was here, and you carried and held her in your 
arms all the while she was ill ; now, mother, who took 
her on c the other side' ?" 

492 



THE LITTLE ONE SLEEPS. 493 

" On the other side of what, Alice ?" 

" On the other side of death ; who took the baby 
on the other side, mother ? She was so little she 
could not go alone." 

" Jesus met her there," said the mother. " It is he 
who took little children in his arms to bless them, and 
said : ' Suffer them to come unto me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven V He took 
the baby on the other side." 

Mother, has the Lord taken your sweet baby, the 
darling of your bosom ? Can you say in the spirit of 
Job : " The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, 
blessed be the name of the Lord ?" 

Weeping mother, if Christ says to you tenderly, 
" Will you not give me your little one to take care 
of, to adopt as my own," can you not say, " Yes, 
Lord, with all my heart ?" 

" As believers in Christianity, which reveals God 
as our Father, and heaven as our eternal home, it is 
our privilege to feel that, when our children are taken 
from us, they are not lost to us, but only pass on be- 
fore us to the spirit-world, to become angelic beings 
around the burning throne of God, and the Lamb. 
Jesus declared that of such is the kingdom of heaven. 
They have gone from us to live with the crowned im- 
mortals, to be watched for and cared for by the angels 
of light, and we doubt not that they will be among the 
first to welcome us among the shining courts on high." 




MORE LITTLE FOLKS AND BUSY FOLKS. 

We keep having little folks and busy folks all the time, 
and expect to have them as long as we live — the more the 
better; and when we go up where Jesus is and spirits 
glorified, we shall see there more little folks than big folks, 
a great deal. Millions on millions of the littlest of the 

494 



MORE LITTLE FOLKS AND BUST FOLKS. 495 

little have been washed white in the atoning blood of the 
Lamb, and are now tuning their golden harps around the 
throne of God melodiously. 

And one special object of this book, " Apples of Gold in 
Pictures of Silver," is to enlist as many little folks and big 
folks as we possibly can on the side of Jesus. Moreover, 
it's our heart's desire and prayer to God, that multitudes, 
which no man can number, may be led to seek the Lord, 
and be saved through reading this pictorial volume, even 
after we are gone, lie sleeping in yonder cemetery. 

Happy meeting, glorious, won't it be, when both the 
writer and the readers, the little ones and the big ones, 
meet face to face in the kingdom above, where parting will 
be no more, and " where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest ?" 

Love you, little folks ? Yes we do ; and the more you 
imitate Jesus, walk in newness of life, the more we love 
you, and say, 

11 God bless little children ! 

Day by day, 
With pure and simple wiles, 
And winning words and smiles, 
They creep into the heart : 

And who would wish to say them nay ?" 



PARTING WITH LOVED ONES. 

" When forced to part from those we love, 

Though sure to meet to-morrow, 
We yet a kind of anguish prove, 

And feel a touch of sorrow. 
But, oh ! what words can paint the tears, 

When from those friends we sever, 
Perhaps to part for months — for years — 

Perhaps to part forever !" 



A WORD TO LITTLE FOLKS ABOUT SWEET HOME. 

" There is one spot upon the earth 
Far sweeter than the rest ; 
There is one spot we all must own, 
The brightest and the best.'" 

Little readers, have you a home — pleasant, peaceful, 
happy ? Oh ! what a blessing ! Do you realize it — are 
you thankful for it? Multitudes of little folks have no 
place they can call home. Others, again, have a place of 
turmoil and wretchedness, poverty and ruin. But a home 
that is a home in very deed is a heaven on earth, a little 
paradise. Was there ever a word that fell more delight- 
fully on the ear than " Home, sweet home ?" 

" What thronging memories come ! 
Again that little group have met 
Within the walls of home." 

No spot on earth has the charms like that of home. 
Friends may be kind and minister to our necessities, our 
physical wants may be cared for ; but still the heart longs 
for the sympathies of home. 

" But there's a home, a happy home, 
Where wayworn travellers meet." 

O glorious home, the home of heaven, the Christian's 
home, where sorrow and sighing, sickness and death, and, 
best of all, sinning can never come. There the saints of 
God shall meet, and part no more forever. " There we 
shall see Jesus," and be like him, for we shall see him as 
he is. Though the weary heart may find no resting-place 
on earth, " There's rest in heaven," when the toils and 
labors of earth are ended. 

496 




MY SISTER'S GRAVE. 



Who, that has been bereaved of an only sister, can 
reflect upon the closing scene of her mortal existence 
without deep sorrow and sadness of heart ! A little 
while ago, she was among the living, her cheerful 
countenance and joyous spirit gladdened every one, 
and threw an indescribable charm around the precincts 
of home ; but death regards not a sister's grief — she 
is laid, in her shrouded beauty, beneath the cold sod ; 
and her spirit, emancipated from the heavy shackles 
of mortality, has gone — 

" To the vale that fadeth never, 

Where the breath of summer roves, 
And the just in beauty, ever 
Linger, 'mid immortal groves. " 

Have you a sister ? Then love and cherish her 
with all that pure and holy friendship which renders 
a brother so worthy and noble. Learn to appreciate 

497 



498 my sister's grave. 

her sweet influence, as portrayed in the following 
words : 

He who has never known a sister's kind ministra- 
tion, nor felt his heart warming beneath her endearing 
smile and love-beaming eye, has been unfortunate in- 
deed. It is not to be wondered at, if the fountains of 
pure feeling flow in his bosom but sluggishly, or if the 
gentle emotions of his nature be lost in the sterner 
attributes of mankind. 

A sister's influence is felt even in manhood's ripei 
years ; and the heart of him who has grown cold in 
chilly contact with the world, will warm and thrill 
with pure enjoyment, as some accident awakens 
within him the soft tones, the glad melodies of his 
sister's voice : and he will turn from purposes which 
a warped and false philosophy had reasoned into ex- 
pediency, and even weep for the gentle influences 
which moved him in his earlier years. 

Be kind to your sisters. You may live to be old, 
and never find such tender, loving friends as these 
sisters. Think how many things they do for you ; 
how patient they are with you ; how they love you in 
spite of all your ill temper or rudeness ; how thought- 
ful they are for your comfort, and be you thoughtful 
for theirs. Be ever ready to oblige them, to perform 
any little office for them that lies in your power. 
Think what you can do for them, and if they express 
a wish be ready to gratify it, if possible. 




499 



BEAUTIES OF NATURE-BEAUTIES OF GRACE. 

Nature is beautiful, grace is more beautiful. 

What more beautiful in nature than a rich land- 
scape, fields in verdure, scattered trees and flowers, 
running water, animals grazing, and a lovely female 
sketching the scenery ? 

" The landscape, lately shrouded 
By evening 's paler ray, 
Smiles beauteous and unclouded, 
Before the eye of day." 

Beautiful as nature is, grace far exceeds it in beauty. 
Grace transforming the soul beautiful ? Sight lovely, 
angelically ! — loveliness on loveliness — superlatively 
beautiful ! And not merely beautiful, but sublime, 
heroic, to see a young woman rise superior to the 
world ; its blandishments, its gaieties, superfluities, 
follies, flatteries, fashionable costumes — rise in the 
strength and wisdom of redeeming grace — in all that 
is pure, virtuous, amiable, God-fearing, God-serving I 
Adorning herself, as the Lord says, in modest apparel, 
with shamefacedness and sobriety ; not with broidered 
hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but (which 
becometh women professing godliness) " with good 
works " — " with the ornament of a meek and quiet 
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." 

500 




,1 ->'C^ 1 ' _ ^>N 






r^.% 




A WORD TO THE LITTLE FOLKS. 



ABOUT SPRING-TIME. 



" Spring is coming," and with it long and pleasant 
days ; and these will be greeted with songs of wel- 
come from forest, grove, and lawn. All nature w T ill 



501 



502 A WORD TO THE LITTLE FOLKS. 

be dressed and adorned like a bride, will send forth a 
most welcome greeting. Insects chirping, birds car- 
oling, lambs frolicking, brooks gurgling and dancing, 
children shouting. 

" Welcome, all hail to thee ! welcome young Spring I 
The sun ray is bright on the butterfly's wing, 
Beauty shines forth in the blossom-robed trees, 
Perfume floats by on the soft southern breeze." 

Yes, and the sweet little crocus will smile, and the 
modest violet nod its welcome, while snow-drops and 
pansies and gay dandelions will all sing, " Spring, 
we're here to greet you." And then the lilacs and 
hyacinths, daffodils, honeysuckles, and roses will send 
forth their grateful fragrance of " welcome." 

These all, and a thousand more of nature's voices, 
will combine to swell the chorus of joy and thanks- 
giving to the great and ever-blessed Giver. And 
shall the little ones, — the dear ones, — the most beau- 
tiful of all God's wonderful creation, — the representa- 
tives of angels, — shall these be kept silent ? O, no ! 
Let them sing. Guide them ; lead them gently, lov- 
ingly ; and they will follow like* merry little lambs. 

" Spring is coming ; Spring is coming : 

Even now she's on the wing : 
Hark ! the birds her songs are humming, 

Tuning for her welcoming. 
She will bring us happy hours, 
Robes of green and fairest flowers, 

Budding boughs and blossoming."' 




AN OLIVE BRANCH. 



The olive-tree is one of the earliest trees mentioned 
in Scripture, and is an emblem of peace among all 
nations, because an olive-branch, brought by the dove 
to Noah in the Ark, was the first sign which he re- 
ceived of peace restored between heaven and earth, 
after the bursting forth of God's wrath in the waters of 
the flood. Gen. viii. 11. It is an evergreen tree, and 
very long lived — an emblem of a fresh and enduring 
piety. Psalm lii. 8. Around an old trunk young plants 
shoot up from the same root to adorn the parent stock 
when living, and succeed it when dead ; hence the allu- 
sion in describing the family of the just. Ps. cxxviii. 3. 

503 




THE COUNTRY. 

" Would you be strong- ? go follow up the plow ; 

Would you be thoughtful ? study fields and flowers ; 

Would you be wise ? take on yourself a vow, 

To go to school in Nature's sunny bowers. 

Fly from the city ; nothing there can charm : 
. Seek wisdom, strength, and virtue on a farm." 



Said a venerable fanner of eighty to a relative who 
lately visited him — " I have lived on this farm for 
over half a century. I have no desire to change my 
residence as long as I live on earth. I have no desire 
to be any richer than I now am. I have worshiped 
the God of my fathers with the same people for more 
than forty years. During that period I have rarely 
been absent from the sanctuary on the Sabbath, and 
have never lost but one communion season. I have 
never been confined to my bed by sickness a single 
day. The blessings of God have been richly spread 

504 



THE COUNTRY. 505 

around me, and I made up my mind long ago that h 
I wished to be any happier I must have more religion. 

" Talking of ' family ties,' and ' family love,' and 
' family gatherings,' where would they all be if it were 
not for a ' family day ?' " said the farmer. 

" What do you mean ?" we asked. 

" I mean," he replied, " that the Lord's day is the 
' family day.' Why, I, and thousands of workingmen, 
would hardly know our own children, if it were not 
for that blessed day which brings us all together. 
We are off in the morning before the little ones are 
up, and when we get home at night they are mostly 
gone to bed, or they are tired, and so are we, and it's 
not very much we can know of one another at the 
fag end of the week ; but when that best day comes 
that is all our own, then we can gather together round 
the table or fireside, and talk to one another, and we 
can go to the house of God together, and thank him 
that he has given us one day in seven as a holy, happy 
family day. 

" The noblest men I know on earth, 

Are men whose hands are brown with toil ; 

Who, backed by no ancestral grave3, 
Hew down the woods and till the soil, 

And win thereby a nobler fame 

Than follows king or warrior's name." 




SOWING THE GOOD SEED. 

THE LOED MUST TAKE CARE OF IT. 

All we can do is to sow the seed in faith, water it 
with prayer as the dew of heaven. 

" Let us remember how 
The Holy One was doing good to all, 

And let us ever now, 
When on his name we call, 
Ask that his spirit on our hearts may fall." 

" In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening 
withhold not thy hand ; for thou knowest not whether 
shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both 
shall be alike good. 5 ' 

" Thou knowest not which may thrive, 
The late or early sown, 
Grace keeps the precious germ alive, 
When and wherever strown." 

" Cast thy bread upon the waters : for thou shalt 
find it after many days. ' Some seeds, doubtless, will 
fall by the wayside, some on stony places, some among 
thorns, but other into good ground." 

506 




BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



" Beautiful flowers, beautiful flowers, 
Fading away with earth's waning hours, 
Laying your glorious robes aside 
From the winter's blast, in the dust to hide ; 
Say, will you rise from your lowly tomb, 
When the earth is robed in her Eden bloom ? 

" O winter hours, O winter hours, 
Once more your blight may crush the flowers, 
Once more your snows o'er us be cast : 
Exult not, it may be the last, 
For with the earth's long-promised King, 
Our eyes shall see an endless spring." 
507 




O LOVELY MAY, EVER WELCOME, EVER GAY! 

"Welcome, all hail to thee ! welcome, young Spring ! 
The sun-ray is bright on the butterfly's wing, 
Beauty shines forth in the blossom-robed trees, 
Perfume floats by on the soft southern breeze." 



And shall the little ones — the most beautiful of all Sod's 
wonderful creation — be silent ? Let them sing, like merry- 
little lambs. And yet, 



'How can little children's hearts 
Bring forth flowers of love, 
Unless Christ the Lord imparts 
Sunshine from above ? 

503 




THE BIEDS AND THE NEST. 

"Who taught the bird to build her nest 

Of wool, and hay, and moss ? 
Who taught her how to weave it best, 

And lay the twigs across ? 

Who taught the busy bee to fly 
Among the sweetest flowers ? 

And lay her store of honey by, 
To eat in winter hours ? 

Who taught the little ants the way 

Their little holes to bore ? 
And through the pleasant summer's day 

To gather up their store ? 

'Twas God who taught them all the way, 
And gave them all their skill, 

And teaches children when they pray, 
To do His holy will. 509 




BIRDY, BIRDY, PRETTY BIRD Y— AIN'T IT BEAUTIFUL ! 

" Little birds sleep sweetly 
In their soft round nests, 
Crouching in the cover • 

Of their mother's breast." 

Don't hurt the sweet, beautiful songsters, little folks, 
not a hair of their heads, nor their nests or little ones ; it 
would be cruelly wicked to do so. Hark ! how sweetly 
they sing ! Sing praises ? Yes, they do. Turn to the 
one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm and see how every- 
thing above and everything below, animate and inanimate, 
praise the Lord, and the birds among the rest. 

Learn a lesson from these merry, melodious songsters ? 
Certainly we can. 

" We learn a lesson from the birds 
Of life from day to day— 
The things we set our hearts upon, 
Oft quickly pass away !" 

510 




DON'T SHOOT THE BIRDS. 

" Pon't shoot the birds, the warbling birds, 

That cheer you with their song, 
That fill the air with melodies, 

A bright and happy throng ; 
That carol forth their native lays 

Prom shrub and lofty limb, 
And gaily sing their tuneful strains 

From morn till evening dim. 
Don't shoot the birds, the joyous birds, 

That charm the traveler's way„" 



How thankful should we be that God has given us 
the dear birds to be our fellow-laborers and comforters, 
and the laborer is surely worthy of his hire. "Why 
grudge him his pay ? Why cheat him of his spring 
and summer work % Soon we shall see them very 
busy. Manv have already begun. 

511 ' 




Here's another pretty bird for the young readers. 

" What ! the sparrow ?" Yes, spoken of by Jesus — 
Matt x. 29. 

David, speaking of himself, says, " I watch, and am like a 
sparrow on the house-top." Ps. cii. 7. See, also, Ps. 
lxxxiv. 3. 

" As on some lon'ely building-top, 
The sparrow tells her moan, 
Far from the tents of joy and hope 
I sit and grieve alone. 



Children should be taught not only to love the music of 
birds, but to look upon them as a model of beauty and af- 
fection to their mates and to their young. Instead of driv- 
ing them away from the house, encourage them to come 
and perch upon the window-sill and build their nest under 
the eaves. 

Without birds a country is desolate ; with them it is 

512 



SPARE THOSE BIRDS. 513 

always cheerful. Their songs would enliven the heart of a 
stone, or make a miser for the moment forget his money. 

The association of children with birds when taught to 
love them and not destroy their nests, has as direct and 
certain a tendency to improve their natures as the church 
or family fireside. Teach a child that birds are among the 
good gifts of God to man, and it is hardly possible that the 
child will grow up to manhood without being possessed of 
some of the attributes of the sweet songsters of the grove. 

And yet there are parents who allow their children to 
wage incessant war upon the birds, never thinking of the 
injury they are doing their young minds, or how many 
destructive enemies they are entailing upon the crops, in 
the shape of countless caterpillars, grubs, and worms. 

We don't know of a more pleasant duty for a minister to 
engage in than an effort to preserve the birds in his parish. 

We would impress upon the mind of every child that 
the command " thou shalt not kill," meant these dear 
little birds as much as things of a higher degree. Thou 
shalt not wantonly kill a single thing of all creation that is 
not necessary for man's subsistence, or that is not detri- 
mental to his interest. 

On no pretext whatever should farmers or gardeners per- 
mit their birds to be disturbed. Instead of killing or fright- 
ening them away, they should make use of every means 
in their power to induce them to increase in number and 
become familiar and tame. 

Plant trees for them, build houses, if necessary, for them, 
and let no cat, dog, or boy ever molest them ; and they 
w T ill teach you lessons of domestic bliss ; preach you ser- 
mons, and warble you such hymns as you hear not else- 
where. 



«**»• 




GATHERING FLOWERS. 

" sweet soul'd flowers with robes so bright, 
Fair guests of Eden's birth, 
In cheerful characters of light, 
What lines of love divine ye write, 
Upon the troubled earth." 

Young friends, whenever yon want fruits or flowers, 
Jd sure to ask permission of the owner. Never enter 

514 



GATHERING FLOWERS, 515 

an orchard or flower garden unless you are first in- 
vited to do so. 

These sprightly little folks represented in the en- 
graving are innocent, harmless as doves — their every 
look indicates this. 

Yet there are some boys and girls, we regret to say, 
who take great liberties, do things they ought not. 
Others, who have no fear of God before their eyes, go 
so far as to pluck fruits and flowers secretly, and do other 
very wicked things. Stealing is stealing, theft is theft, 
robbery is robbery, in little things and great things. 
A boy or girl who will steal an apple, a pear, or bou- 
quet, will, doubtless, by-and-by, steal other things and 
greater things. Beware, little folks and great folks. 
" Thou shalt not steal," saith the holy one. " Be sure 
your sin will find you out." 

" On the goods that are not thine, 
Do not dare to lay thy finger : 
On thy neighbor's better things 
Let no wistful glances linger. 

" Pilfer not the smallest thing, 

Touch it not, howe'er thou need it ; 
Though the owner have enough, 

Though he know it not nor heed it." 



It is with health as with property ; we rarely value 
it or know how best to use or to take care of it till it 
is gone. 




SUMMER IS HERE! 

Pleasant, mild, balmy, beautiful ! Summer ! 
"What visions of beauty float up before us at that 
word! Summer! Emerald-robed, flower-wreathed 
summer. It is the season of beauty and of gladness 
— the time of blue skies and gorgeous sunsets — of 

516 



SUMMER IS HERE ! 517 

balmy airs and laughing waters — the season of music, 
of verdure, of blossoms, and of early, delicious fruits. 

" Give me the farmer's peaceful home, 
Beneath the maple high, 
Where nature's warblers wake the song, 
The waters prattling nigh." 

Summer is here ! 

" MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES." 

Improve the fair weather while you have it, for 
soon it will be gone ; then cometh the foul weather, 
the wind, the rain, the snow r , the hail, the storm. 
Improve the present : be wise to-day, 'tis madness to 
defer ! The present moment is yours — while you 
have it — and only the present. Make haste, O mor- 
tal, make haste ! Do what good thy hand findeth to 
do with thy might. Make haste ere your glass is run, 
ere the silver cord is loosed or the golden bowl be 

broken. 

" Make haste, man, to do 
Whatever must be done ; 
Thou hast no time to lose in sloth, 
Thy day will soon be gone. 

Intake haste, man, to live. 



There is no w T orse robber than a bad book. Other 
robbers may spoil us of our money, but a bad book 
robs us of our faith, our truth, our purity of heart — 
of all we value most. Young reader, beware of bad 
books ! 




SWIFT AS A DEER. 

Are you, little readers, on the leap for things beautiful, 
sublime, heavenly, enduring forever ? What animal swifter 
on foot ? David and Habakkuk both allude to the charac- 
ter of the hind or deer. " The Lord maketh my feet like 
hind's feet, and causeth me to stand on the high places." 
Psalm xviii. 33. Hob. iii. 19. 

Again he says : "As the hart panteth after the water- 
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul 
thirsteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come 
and appear before God ?" 

Little friends, are your souls on fire thus for God and his 
glory ? Is it not your privilege, your duty ? 

" Wherefore do ye spend money for that which satisfieth 
not ? Llearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is 
good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Isa. lv. 2. 

518 



THE GOOD DOG TOWSER AND THE BOY WILLIE. 



A LESSON FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS. 




Young friends, what 
do you think Towser 
does ? When his mas- 
ter has a loaf of bread, 
or a pie, or a plate of 
dinner, to send to poor 
old Mrs. Green, Towser carries it. He never says, 
" Not now, mistress," or, " By-and-by," or, " It is too 
hot," or " too cold," or, " I don't want to," as some 
children object when told to do an errand ; but he 
goes, as pleased as can be. Nor does he ever touch a 
thing he carries, as a greedy little boy once ate up 
some nice jelly his mother sent by him to a sick 
woman. 

A dog once followed Tow r ser as he was carrying a 
piece of meat in his basket, smelling round, and try- 
ing to put his nose into the basket. Towser gave a 
big growl to frighten him off, but the dog would not 
go. I suppose he was very hungry. At length Tow r - 
ser set his basket down, turned round, and gave his 
troublesome companion a sound shaking, then took up 
his basket and trotted on. The hungry dog did not 
dare follow then. 

"When Towser reaches Mrs. Green's door, how do 

519 



520 THE GOOD DOG TOWSER AND THE BOY WILLIE. 

you think he lets her know he is there ? He scratches ? 
No. He puts his basket down, and sets up a great 
" bow-wow ;" and Mrs. Green opens the door, and 
she says, " How now, Towser, you have brought me 
something good to eat ; good dog ?" Towser wags 
his tail as much as to say he has. She takes and 
empties the basket, and hands it back to him. and 
away he bounds ; and the good old lady walks back 
to her little kitchen, saying in heart, " God sent the 
ravens to feed Elijah, and he sends Towser to feed 
me. He never sees the righteous forsaken, or his 
seed begging bread. Praise God." 

Again, not long since we were passing a store about 
midday, and the owner came out with Towser at his 
heels and a pail in his hand. He told Towser to take 
the pail and carry it to the house, a few rods across 
the way. The dog did not w T hine over the command, 
nor curl his tail and refuse to go ; no, not he. He 
obeyed at once, took the pail in his mouth, and away 
he went to the house. "We watched him to see how 
w r ell he fulfilled his master's orders. The door was 
closed, so he sat down on the piazza and waited a 
welcome. Five minutes passed, and no one opened 
the door ; yet the dog was patient and faithful. Five 
minutes more passed, and just as we were about to 
leave, he was seen from the window and admitted 
with his charge. Faithful dog, thought we, never to 
refuse obedience or wait for the second bidding. 



THE GOOD DOG TOWSER AND THE BOY WILLIE. 521 

Then we thought of little Willie S , who said 

to his mother, " No, I can't do it ; let Ned go, he is 
not doing any thing." 

Think of this, little readers ! Willie was less obe- 
dient than Towser ; for he went cheerfully, wagging 
his bushy tail, and lifting his head as if to say, " 1 
obeyP 

Learn a good lesson from the example of the dog, 
and never let it be said of you, " Towser is more obe- 
dient than Willie." 

11 Be kind to your mother, for when thou wast young, 
Who loved thee so fondly as she ? 
She caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, 
And joined in thy innocent glee." 



A child's perceptions are quick, and his suscepti- 
bilities are great. If for once he may disbelieve his 
father or mother, why not again ? One deception 
practiced npon his credulity, begets a suspiciousness not 
easily rooted out. We have known a child, after being 
induced by deception to take a bitter medicine, for a 
long time afterward to doubt his parent's word when- 
ever he imagined medicine might be needed. One 
mischief leads to another. And whether deception is 
practised upon the child, or whether he is allowed to 
raise doubt of his parent's veracity, the result is equally 
disastrous to the child and those who gave him birth. 




THE SHINING LIGHT. 



THE BOOKS OP THE BIBLE, 

WITH EXPLANATIONS. 

When and by whom were the books of the Old 
Testament first collected and arranged? 

By Ezra, about 450 years before Christ. The 
five books of Moses had been kept with the Ark of 
the Covenant (Deut. xxxi. 24-26) ; and Joshua had 
written the portion of Scripture bearing his name 
"in the book of the law of God." Joshua viii. and 
xxiv. 26. 

What are the most prominent translations of the 
Bible that have been made ? 

The Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Douay, and the 
English or King James's Bible. 

522 



THE SHINING LIGIIT. 523 

What is the meaning of the word Septuagint ? 

Seventy. The translation was so called because 
it was made by seventy, or, more strictly, by seventy- 
two men ; six having been chosen from each of the 
twelve tribes of Israel for this purpose. 

When and where was this translation made ? 

At Alexandria in Egypt, about two hundred years 
before Christ. It was a translation of the Old 
Testament only, from the Hebrew into the Greek. 

How was this translation regarded by the Jews 
in the time of Christ ? 

It was regarded with peculiar reverence. Our 
Saviour and the Apostles in their discourses gen- 
erally quoted from this version. 

What is the Vulgate translation ? 

It is a Latin translation of the -Septuagint, not of 
the Hebrew, and is called the Vulgate, because, 
being the c nly version which the Roman Catholic 
Church holds to be reliable, it is in that Church the 
common versi n. 

When and by whom was this translation made ? 

By Jerome, about the year A. D. 400. It was 
hastily made, and became very incorrect by many 
changes. 

What of the Douay Bible? 

It is ah English translation of the Vulgate, with 
notes and comments, and is the only English Bible 
approved by the Boman Catholic Church. 

From what did it receive its name ? 

From the place where it was first published — 
Douay, a town in France, 



524 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

When was it published ? 

In the year 1610. 

Why does it differ so much from our English 
Bible? 

Because it was made, not from the original 
Hebrew, but from the Vulgate, which was from the 
Septuagint, and was very imperfect. It could not 
be as correct as a translation made directly from 
the Hebrew. 

Why is our English version called " King James's 
Bible?" 

Because it was made during the reign of James 
I., king of England. 

When was it begun and when completed ? 

In the year 1607 the work was commenced, and 
was finished in abeut three years, and published in 
1611. 

By whom was the translation made ? 

Fifty-four of the most learned men of the king- 
dom were appointed for the task. P >ven of thes« 
did not serve, leaving forty-seven as the number 
who were actually engaged in the work. 

How was the labor apportioned among this 
number ? 

They were divided into six classes ; to each of 
which a certain portion of the Bible was* given to 
translate, not from the Latin nor from the Sep- 
tuagint, but directly from the original Hebrew and 
Greek. 

How will our English translation compare with 
other versions of the Bible ? 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 525 

It is said by most competent judges to be better 
than any other. 

What was the earliest division of the Bible ? 

That which is supposed to have been made by 
Ezra. The books of the Old Testament were 
dividvl into three classes: "The Law," "the 
Prophets," and " the Writings," or " the Psalms." 
To this our Saviour refers, Luke xxiv. 44: "All 
things must be fulfilled which w r ere written in the 
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, 
concerning me." 

What books were embraced in these three 
divisions ? 

" The Law" included the first five books ; " the 
Psalms," or Writings, included the Psalms, Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. " The 
Prophets'' included all the remaining books. 

When and by whom was the Bible first divided 
into chapters ? 

This is generally said to have been done by 
Cardinal Hugo, A. d. 1240. But as early as the 
middle of the third century the four Gospels had 
been divided into chapters. 

When and by whom were the chapters divided 
into verses ? 

By Bobert Stephens, in the year 1551. It is said 
that he performed the greater part of this laborious 
task w T hile on horseback, on a journey from Paris 
to Lyons ! 

What is the meaning of Genesis ? 

Creation, or production. This name was given 



52G THE SHINING LIGHT. 

to the book by those who translated it into 
Greek. 

"What is the meaning of the word Exodus ? 

It is a Greek word — meaning, a going out, or 
departure. 

"Why is this book so called ? 

Because it gives a history of the departure of the 
Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. 

What is the meaning of the word Leviticus ? 

It is the Latin form of a Greek word derived from 
the proper name Levi. 

Of what does this book treat ? 

Of the law concerning sacrifices ; the institution 
of the Levitical priesthood ; the law concerning 
clean and unclean animals ; concerning purification, 
and other regulations with regard to observances 
and festivals. 

What period of time does the history of this book 
embrace ? 

It is generally thought to give the history of one 
month, from April 21st to May 21st, of the year of 
the world 2,514 ; or of the second month after the 
Exodus. 

Were all of the tribe of Levi priests ? 

No ; only the descendants of Aaron acted as 
priests ; though all of the tribe were set apart to 
religious service. The priests offered sacrifice, and 
conducted the morning and evening services. The 
Levites assisted the priests ; they carried the various 
parts of the tabernacle in their journeys, and the 
sacred utensils. 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 527 

What is the name of the fourth book? 

Numbers. This is the only book among the first 
five whose name is translated into English. The 
names of all of them were given by the translators 
of the Septuagint. 

Why is it called Numbers ? 

Because it gives an account of the two number- 
ings of the children of Israel ; one at Mount Sinai, 
the other on the Plains of Moab, thirty-nine years 
after the first. 

What is the meaning of Deuteronomy ? 

The second law. The book received this name 
because in it the ten commandments given in 
Exodus are given the second time. 

What period of time does this book embrace ? 

The second month of the fortieth year of the 
journeyings of the children of Israel. 

What is the special characteristic of the book ? 

It gives us the farewell words of Moses, and the 
account of the close of his mission. 

What direction did Moses give about this book ? 

That it should be read every seven years before 
all the people. See Deut. xxxi. 9-13. 

Did Moses write this book ? 

Yes ; all but the last chapter. 

By whom is the last chapter thought to have 
been written ? 

It could not have been written by Moses, because 
it records his death. It is generally thought to have 
been written by the author of the book of Joshua. 

What is the meaning of the name Moses ? 



528 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

Drawn out of water ; in allusion to his rescue in 
infancy from the waters of the Nile. 

Why is Moses considered the most extraordinary 
man that ever lived ? 

He witnessed the display of the power and glory 
of God ; he was singularly honored as the medium 
of communication between God and the race, in 
the giving of the law ; he was the first and greatest 
of the prophets ; he was the first historian — the 
only historian of the creation ; he was beyond all 
other men in meekness. 

"What did he write besides the book of Deuter- 
onomy? 

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the 
Ninetieth Psalm. 

Sustain yourself by the remembrance that the 
knowledge of the Bible, like other knowledge, must 
increase from small beginnings. Unwearied patience 
and perseverance are indispensable. You must add 
thought to thought, prayer to prayer. Bible wisdom 
echoes the voice of God, " Ye shall seek me and find 
me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." 

" The starry firmament on high, 
And all the glories of the sky, 
Yet shine not to thy praise, Lord, 
So brightly as thy written word. 

" The hopes that holy word supplies, 
Its truths divine, and precepts wise, 
In each a heavenly beam I see, 
And every beam conducts to Thee." 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 529 

RULES AND REASONS FOR SEARCHING 
THE SCRIPTURES. 

" The Bible ! 'tis a book divine, 
Where heavenly truth and mercy shine ; 
And wisdom speaks in every line." 

Rule 1. Never open the Book of God without 
remembering that you must be tried by it at the 
judgment-seat of Christ. 

2. Read, with prayer for direction to the right 
meaning, with earnest attention to the words, and 
connection of the passage ; with diligent compari- 
son of every passage with the whole Bible ; and 
with patient thought concerning the result. 

3. When you read the Scriptures, let not your 
attachment to the systems or the sentiments of 
men obscure their meaning, or induce you to per- 
vert them. 

4. When you discover any truth in the Bible, re- 
ceive it with candor, maintain it with meekness, and 
avow it with courage. 

5. When you discover any duty in the Bible, 
meet the discovery with a cheerful obedience. 

6. In your daily perusal of the sacred volume, 
receive its doctrines with a lively faith, and practise 
its duties with a holy boldness. 

7. When you read the Bible, pray for divine 
grace, by which its doctrines and duties may be- 
come the fountain, and the streams of genuine 
Christian discipleship. 



530 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

II. Glance at the reasons for this sacred privilege and 

duty. 

1. Because of the wonderful and perfect character 
of the Bible. " O the depth of the riches both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God." Rom. xi. 83. 
" Thy testimonies are wonderful ; therefore doth 
my soul keep them." Psalm cxix. 129. " Thy coun- 
sels of old are faithfulness and truth." Isa. xxv. 1. 
" The word of the Lord endureth forever." 1 Pet. 
i. 25. 

2. Because of its gracious design and tendency. 
" "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were 
written for our learning, that we through patience 
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." 
Romans, xv. 4. " Which are able to make thee 
wise unto salvation, through faitli which is in Christ 
Jesus." 2 Tim. iii. 15. 

3. Because it is necessary to our spiritual nourish- 
ment and stability. " Man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of 
the mouth of God." Matt. iv. 4. 

4. Because it will enlighten and expand our minds. 
" The commandment is a lamp ; and the law is 
light ; and reproofs of instruction are the way of 
life." Prov. vi. 23. "The entrance of thy words 
giveth light ; it giveth understanding unto the sim- 
ple." Psalm cxix. 130. " Meditate upon these 
things ; give thyself wholly to them ; that thy prof- 
iting may appear to all." 1 Tim. iv. 15. 

5. Because it vsilYpreserve us from sin. " Where- 



THE SHINING EJGHT. 531 

with shall a young man cleanse his way ? By tak- 
ing heed thereto according to thy word." Psalm 
cxix. 9. " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy 
word is truth." John, xvii. 17. 

6. Because it will cheer our souls in affliction and 
death. " In the multitude of my thoughts within 
me thy comforts delight my soul." Psalm xciv. 19. 
" Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of 
my pilgrimage. Unless thy law had been my de- 
lights, I should have perished in mine affliction." 
Psalm cxix. 54, 92. " Yea, though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil ; for thou art with me : thy rod and thy staff 
they comfort me." Psalm xxiii. 4. 

7. Because it will contribute to our present and 
eternal welfare. " Happy is the man that findeth 
wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. 
For the merchandise of it is better than the mer- 
chandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine 
gold. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
her paths are peace. Whoso findeth me findeth 
life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord." Prov. iii. 
13, 14, 17 ; viii. 34, 35. 

8. Because the neglect of it will subject us to God's 
righteous condemnation. * " See that ye refuse not 
him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who 
refused him that spake on earth, much more shall 
not we escape, if we turn away from him that 
speaketh from heaven." Heb. xii. 25. " For whoso- 
ever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of 
him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he 



532 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, 
and of the holy angels." Luke ix. 26. 

" Read and revere the sacred page : a page 
Where triumphs immortality : a page 
Which not the whole creation can produce ; 
Which not the conflagration can destroy." 



Read the Bible with your pen in hand, and note 
in your memorandum-book the thoughts which in- 
terest you. 

Study the Bible with unwearied endeavors to 
know and love Jesus, as you would study the letters 
of some friend whom you had never seen, but whom 
you wished to know and love. 

Study the Bible with the utmost care to know 
yourself ; to know the whole of your case ; and 
especially to know wherein you fail to do the will 
of God. * 

Seek fresh thought. " Give us this day our 
daily bread," is the appropriate prayer for one who 
desires to feed upon the Word of God. Yester- 
day's perceptions, impressions, and emotions will 
not suffice for to-day. They must be renewed and 
increased by to-day's study. From each reading of 
the Bible, get at least one fresh, distinct, impressive 
thought, and dwell upon it. Many of the Psalms 
are prayers and praises. Select some one of these 
petitions, or ascriptions of praise ; adopt it as your 
own, and repeat it many times to God. 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 533 

BEADING THE BIBLE FOR THIS— READ- 
ING THE BIBLE FOR THAT. 

" Lamp of our feet ! whereby we trace 
Our path when wont to stray ; 
Stream from the fount of heavenly light — 
Brook by the traveller's way!" 

Read the Bible ! Multitudes read it, throughout 
the land. No book, perhaps, is read more than the 
Bible.* Put the question to whom you please, in 
this land of Bibles, " Do you read the Bible ?" The 
response is almost invariably in the affirmative. It 
is unpopular to be wholly ignorant of the contents 
of this blessed book ; and yet, with all this reading, 
how very little is this sacred treasure understood 
and practised ! How few, comparatively, appreciate 
its value, embrace it, clasp it to their bosoms, drink 
in its spirit joyfully ! Why is it that so few, among 
the innumerable multitude of Bible readers, read 

* It is stated that more than ten times as many Bibles have been 
printed and issued in the last fifty years than had ever been in the 
whole world previous to that time. It has been ascertained, by 
the most accurate data, that previous to the present century all the 
editions of God's word then printed amounted to less than four 
million copies, in about forty different languages ; while, in the 
present century, more than forty million copies have been issued 
by Bible societies alone, exclusive of the millions of copies that 
have been printed by private publishers. Since the epoch of 
modern missions, this blessed volume has been translated for the 
three hundred and sixty millions of China, for the one hundred 
millions of Hindostan, for the twenty or thirty millions of Bur- 
mah, and has been printed in not less than one hundred and sixty 
different languages and dialects, into one hundred and twenty of 
which the Bible had never been translated before. 



534 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



the Bible understanding^ and practically, with a 
firm resolve to make it a lamp to their feet, and a 
light to their path ? 

1. It is because many read it merely to have a 
general idea of what it contains, as a necessary part 
of polite education. 

2. Many read it to obtain the means of proving 
the dogmas which they already profess. 

3. Very many study the Bible from a spirit of 
pride or self-esteem, or with a design of being con- 
sidered extremely wise in their own opinion of its 
contents. 

4. Others make themselves familiar with the Holy 
Scriptures from no higher motive than to be able to 
explain it to others. 

5. Some read it from a spirit of curiosity, without 
the least design of treasuring up or practising what 
they read. 

6. Not a few read the Bible skeptically, or with a 
cavilling spirit, to controvert its sacred pages. 

7. Many study the Bible, or certain portions of it, 
merely to improve their style of composition. 

8. Again, many make themselves familiar with 
certain parts of the Bible from necessity, to com- 
plete their education. This is true of lawyers, doc- 
tors, and judges of law. 

9. A very large portion of the people, both old 
and young, read the Bible superficially, pass over 
its sacred contents hastily, inattentively, and irrev- 
erently, without the. least desire or intention of 
being intellectually or spiritually benefited. 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 535 

10. Others, again, read the Bible with very little 
profit, from the fact that they adopt no plan, no 
regular systematic order in reading it. 

11. Again, some read the Bible as they would 
any human author, without humility, due reverence, 
and godly fear. 

12. The majority of Bible readers do not read 
God's book, mixed with faith and earnest prayer, 
for enlightenment. 

13. Very many read the Scriptures without* any 
special benefit, from the fact that they do not put 
away their sins. How can any one expect light 
from heaven to shine upon him, enlightening his 
understanding to understand the Holy Scriptures, 
while living in open disobedience to any one com- 
mand? "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the 
Lord will not hear me," the Psalmist said. " I have 
refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might 
keep thy word." Psa. cxix. 101. 

14. Finally, among the multitudes that read this 
holy book, very few, comparatively, read it with 
fervent prayer, with a full determination to know 
and do the whole will of God. This is the only 
reading of it that is really profitable. In this way, 
and only in this way, the spirit of it is caught, re- 
tained, and exhibited. " Open thou mine eyes," 
says the inspired penman, "that I may behold 
wondrous things out of thy law." " This book of 
the law shall not depart out of thy mouth ; but 
thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that 
thou mayest observe to do according to all that is 



53G 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 



written therein : for then thou shalt make thy way 
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." 
Josh. i. 8. 



RULES FOR BIBLE-READING. 

1. For the improvement of the understanding. 
Eule 1. Begin your Bible-reading with prayer for 

the Divine instruction. 

2.' Attend carefully to the narrative. 

3. Observe the doctrine. 

4. Note every prediction and promise, together 
with times and institutions, both civil and religious. 

5. Attend to the types of Jesus Christ. 

6. Attend to the characters and conduct of the 
principal persons, and consider their excellences 
and defects. 

7. Consider the practical uses to which the dif- 
ferent texts may be applied. 

8. Observe God's faithfulness in keeping his 
promises and fulfilling his prophecies. 

9. Render thanks to God for the light you re- 
ceive, and ask his blessing to attend the endeavors 
you are making to become wise. 

II. For the improvement of the heart 
Eule 1. Read the Bible in the spirit of constant 
prayer. 

2. Believe what you read. 

3. Cherish a humble desire to learn and know 
the truth, and that you may feel its power and 
sanctifying influence. 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 537 

4. Read a little, frequently, and meditate on what 
you read. 

5. Receive the whole Bible as God's instruction 
for the salvation of your soul. 

6. Read the whole Bible in connection, and com- 
pare one part with another, so as to know the 
whole truth, and its saving application. 

7. Use such helps as you have, to ascertain its 
literal meaning. 

8. Observe the testimony of the whole Bible to 
Jesus Christ. 

9. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved. 

THE BIBLE ITS OWN INTERPRETER. 

A careful, candid comparison of parallel passages 
of Scripture will remove a number of infidel objec- 
tions. Worthy of all attention is the remark of 
Bishop Horsley : " It were to be wished that no 
Bibles were printed without references. Particular 
diligence should be used in comparing the parallel 
texts of the Old and New Testaments. It is in- 
credible to any one who has not made the experi- 
ment, what a proficiency may be made in that 
knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation, by 
studying the Scriptures in this manner, without 
any other commentary or exposition than what the 
different parts of the sacred volume mutually fur- 
nish for each other. Let the most illiterate Chris- 
tian study them in this manner, and let him never 



538 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

cease to pray for the illumination of that Spirit by 
which these books were dictated ; and the whole 
compass of abstruse philosophy, and recondite his- 
tory, shall furnish no argument with which the per- 
verse will of man shall be able to shake the learned 
Christian's faith." 

" Upon tliis life's uneven way, 
As we are swiftly driven, 
It slieds a bright, celestial ray, 
It points to an eternal day, 
And bids us strive for heaven.' , 



DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE. 

The following table has been published as con- 
taining accurate particulars of the English version 
'of the Bible, which may not be uninteresting to 
our numerous readers : 



In Old Testament — 


In New Testament — 


Total. 


Books, 29 


Books, 27 


56 


Chapters, 929 


Chapters, 260 


1,189 


Verses, 23,214 


Verses, 7,959 


31,173 


Words, 592,493 


Words, 181,253 


773,746 


Letters, 2,728,100 


Letters, 838,380 


3,566,480 



The middle chapter and the shortest in the Bible 
is the 117th Psalm. The middle verse is the eighth 
of the 118th Psalm. The twenty-first verse of the 
seventh chapter of Ezra, in the English version, has 
all the letters of the alphabet in it. The nineteenth 
chapter of the Second Book of Kings and the thirty- 
seventh chapter of Isaiah are both alike. 



THE SHINING LIGHT. 630 

READING THE SCEIPTUEES AND SEAECH- 
ING THE SCEIPTUEES. 

" Yes, sweet Bible, I will hide thee 
Deep, yes, deeper in this heart." 

God commands us, not only to read the Scriptures, 
but to scorch them,, bring them home heartily to 
every-day life. How can we search them more 
effectually and profitably, than by committing por- 
tions of them to memory daily, beseeching God 
meanwhile fervently for his enlightening, sanctify- 
ing influences ? 

There is a great difference between reading and 
searching the Scriptures. There have been, and 
still are, many that read much, but our knowledge 
of divine truth depends more upon the manner in 
w T hich we read, than upon the quantity. Dr. Gouge, 
it is said, read fifteen chapters a day ; Jeremiah 
Whittiker read all the Epistles of the New Testa- 
ment in Greek every week, and Roger Cotton read 
the whole Bible through twelve times every year. 

This rapid reading of the Bible is not the most 
profitable. We have been impressed of late, more 
than ever, with the necessity of " meditating in the 
law of the Lord," of pausing and reflecting upon 
the portions we read, of looking at them from dif- 
ferent stand-points, till we are sure tve have before 
our minds the precise idea the Holy Spirit meant 
to convey. , We should consider, when the passage 
under consideration was written, by whom, to whom 
addressed, and for what purpose. 



540 THE SHINING LIGHT. 

By searching the Scriptures carefully, by com- 
paring parallel texts, and similar facts, a person 
can hardly fail to become deeply interested in the 
contents of the sacred volume. We shall sym- 
pathize with David, who said : " How sweet are thy * 
words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter than honey to 
my mouth." 

By studying the Bible, rather than reading it, the 
mind is stored with ideas, the conscience is enlight- 
ened, and each single thought is kept before the 
mind long enough to produce an impression. Pas- 
tors and Sabbath-school teachers should take pains 
to instruct those under their charge, how to read the 
Bible so as to derive the most benefit from it. 

If the Bible was studied, instead of being rapidly 
read, it would be, much oftener than it is, like the 
fire and the hammer " which breaketh the rock in 
pieces." 

" ThisJ^oly book is all divine, 
To i^n in mercy given ; 
•■ .ItftrjiTOK, all radiant and benign, 
+^Jf* *With beams of holy lustre shine, 
And gild the path to heaven." 



^ 



The Christian Kevelation is the true salt of the 
earth, the vital force of communities and states. It 
alone regenerates while it preserves — preserves 
while it regenerates. "There never," says Lord 
Bacon, " was found in any age of the world, either 
religion or law, that did so highly exalt the public 
good as the Bible." 



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